By ROGER BRYNER
The BYU Alumni Association is giving alumni a way to check up on old friends.
Alumni can search a database of 334,834 records, which include those from Ricks College and BYU-Hawaii, to get e-mail and home addresses of other graduates.
Since its activation on May 10, 1999, the alumni records web site, found at alumni.byu.edu, has received more than 33,000 visitors who have looked up information on over 55,000 alumni.
“The alumni directory is the biggest and most positive service that we offer at the alumni association,” said Michael J. Cunningham from Alumni Computer and Record Services.
Users are able to search for alumni by their name, maiden name and by the year they graduated.
“There are a few people that I would like to get in contact with,” said Geoffrey Harston, a graduate from Signal Mt., Tenn., who is working on a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering.
In addition to the services now provided, the Alumni Association is planning on implementing a career networking system. This would allow alumni to find and contact other graduates who can help them to find jobs in their field.
“We want to make this a community,” Cunningham said.
Another upgrade to the service will allow alumni to enter the Web site and manually restrict any information that they do not wish to be released.
These two additions to the service should be implemented by the end of February.
Part of the security involved in the records system includes a registration process. Before viewing the records graduates are required to register online, and must receive a user ID and password.
To prevent users from using the records as a method to sell products or petition money, a limit of 100 records can be accessed a month.
In addition, each log-on is monitored in order to prevent people from using the database to harass others.
Some alumni have used the records to send announcements for marriages and reunions.
Only a very few people have asked that their information be removed from the database. More than 6,253 people are now currently registered.
For more information on the alumni records visit their Web page or call 1-877-827-2218.
