About a year ago, we asked you, our readers, to take a survey and tell us what you think about Wagner Magazine. More than 400 of you completed the questionnaire, which was administered online. I’m deeply grateful for your time and your interest!
Considering that I usually answer surveys only when I have some bone to pick, I felt all the more gratified that, by and large, people felt good about the publication: Around 90 percent rated it good or excellent for content, ease of reading, design, photography, and writing.
The most interesting part of the survey to me was finding out what types of stories you would most like to read. Now, I have a Wagner Magazine readership Top 10 list. In the spirit (though not the humor) of David Letterman, here we go:
10. Alumni in their personal lives
9. Student achievements
8. Individual alumni profiles
7. Alumni chapter activities and regional programming
6. Campus facilities and growth
5. Cultural events and performances
4. Obituaries
3. Institutional history and traditions
2. Alumni in their professions
1. Class notes
Another area the survey is helping me to address is the role of the website. Survey respondents tended to favor print heavily — 77 percent said they prefer print, whereas 6 percent prefer online and 17 percent prefer both. But a good slice of the pie, 44 percent, said they would be interested in seeing additional online-only content.
I hope you are enjoying your visit to our brand-new website, launched in December! I believe it’s much more attractive and functional than the first version we built. And we do, indeed, have online-only content for this issue, such as additional photos of the spectacular stained glass windows of Cliff Oster ’69, a NY1 news television segment with seniors Kerri Alexander and Jarrid Williams, and a documentary about the Wagner student movement in 1969–70.
I was also very happy to hear that Wagner Magazine strengthens your feeling of connection to the College, because that’s its main purpose. Please do let me know if you have other ideas about how this magazine can better fulfill its mission and serve you and the College in new ways.
Laura Barlament
Editor, Wagner Magazine