You want alumni, parent and donor names? You want to know where they work? You want it fast? Well, finally, UC Davis can deliver. Making its debut this month is a new $2.4 million database, which, with 325,000 names, carries the most complete list ever of university affiliates. The new system has been designed to keep up-to-date information not just on people but also on corporations, foundations, and other businesses and agencies related to UC Davis. It offers the ability to collect complex historical information and then analyze it from a variety of perspectives--quickly. A broad number of people on campus will have access but, because much of the information is confidential, they will need to be trained and agree to maintain the system's security. "This is a constituent data management system," explains Deborah Urban, director of advancement services in University Relations. "It will keep track of all of our human relationships, including alumni, students, parents, legislators, corporations, foundations, strategic partners, retirees and donors." Until now, tracking people associated with UC Davis has been difficult because the campus has been dependent on a minicomputer built with 1970s technology. Known across campus as the Administrative Donor Records System, the computer has limited capabilities and requires manual entry. Perhaps the most annoying aspect of the ADRS is that, even in 1999, it must report data on stacks of green and white computer paper, printed line by line from one machine. To compensate, faculty and staff members, like molecular and cellular biology professor Rich Nuccitelli, have developed their own, sometimes sketchy, "shadow systems." Nuccitelli was frustrated two years ago when networking among his former students and friends in industry to help raise money for the national Gordon Conference in Fertilization. "I try to keep track of my students, but you lose them when they move to a new company," he says. Micki Eagle, management services officer with the Department of Political Science, has experienced similar problems. She says she looks forward to updated mailing lists so her department can boost its efforts to develop alumni support groups and host fund-raising events. "This would avoid so many returned invitations," she says. People in Urban's department, like lead programmer John Finazzo, have dedicated the last three years to making this database a reality. Urban herself was recruited in 1996 to use her past expertise in computer-system conversion to develop a new information-system infrastructure at UC Davis. The unit's associate director, Joseph Calger, came last year from UC San Diego, bringing a similar database-development background. Developed through campus consultation The system was developed through extensive campus consultation, with 33 meetings among management services officers, system users, Information Technology consultants, and others in academic and administrative units. In addition, the Office of Advancement Services took sage advice from the campus pioneers in building big administrative software systems--those involved with Banner, the student information system, and DaFIS, the financial information system. The new capabilities of this system so far outreach those of its predecessor that Urban is reluctant to say that the Advancement Information System is a "replacement." For instance, the system will allow Graduate Studies, for the first time, to develop a reliable database that keeps track of where graduate students are finding jobs. Urban also expects the Internship and Career Center can use the system to locate helpful alumni who can assist students in securing employment. As for the next time Nuccitelli needs updated addresses, he will be able to ask his development or dean's office for help. Someone will then query the new system from his or her desktop for employers in the biotechnology industry with a relationship to UC Davis. Calger predicts that Nuccitelli will find many more people and companies than he expected. Growing alumni database The system is using updated information from the Cal Aggie Alumni Association's five-year survey and then using other sources to make changes in between. The campus has employment information for nearly 40 percent of UC Davis' nearly 140,000 alumni, with plans to improve that statistic with this year's alumni survey. The AIS also collects information about employers with any sort of UC Davis association, such as those companies whose employees have been parents, campus committee board members or donors. Once a single employer accrues five or more employees--alumni and non-alumni--with a campus affiliation, a separate record for that employer is created. The active employees are then tracked, using the AIS. Company subsidiaries with campus affiliates will be linked to the parent company so that campus AIS users can see the bigger picture of campus-company relationships, Urban says. Safeguarding confidential information Calger makes two important points about this valuable information: It is confidential, and the people who use it must take responsibility for that trust. He expects that hundreds of campus employees--mostly affiliated with development offices, deans' and vice chancellors' offices and some department chairs--will eventually have access to the data at various security levels. The information comes from a variety of places: Much of it was gathered from public sources; information about alumni began as legally protected information collected from students; and still other information has been given to the university by donors with the understanding it is confidential. "We have private information about people. It's critical that we maintain the confidence of our donors and alumni that we aren't going to use the information inappropriately," Calger says. At the same time, because the database has campuswide applicability, the Advancement Services Office wants to make the system broadly available. "If you want access, come talk to us," Calger says. Advancement Services has devised a strategy to balance the issue of wider access to confidential material with that of maintaining the campus's responsibility to the people in the database. "We will have tight security, comparable to Banner," Calger says. "You have to have a token to use it. You will go through training before using the system and sign a confidentiality agreement to remind you of all the policies." The AIS, like Banner and DaFIS, is bringing the campus into a new era by stimulating policy-makers to think in broader terms about long-term funding mechanisms--and responsibilities. "Administrative information systems on the scale of the AIS and DaFIS involve a substantial investment of the campus's resources," says Bob Loessberg-Zahl, acting director of program planning and budget operations. "In addition to very large, one-time expenditures for development and significant ongoing annual costs of operation, these systems require periodic upgrades and enhancements to maintain and improve their level of service to the campus." At Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Grey's request, the Office of Information Technology has created a new policy on the subject. The policy writers consulted extensively with the Administrative Computing Work Group (people affiliated with other campuswide administrative information systems) and the Administrative Computing Coordinating Council chaired by engineering dean Alan Laub. This policy ensures that planners and operators are accountable for producing technically sound systems at the lowest reasonable long-term cost to the campus, Loessberg-Zahl says. It also outlines a budget process that rationally allocates campus resources to administrative computing priorities. For most people at UC Davis, this new database will become one of those necessary but transparent support systems, believes David Duer, chief development officer for health sciences advancement and an adviser on AIS. "The reality is that support structures are taken for granted, but we can't lose sight of how important they are," Duer says. "This database is critical to our success and continued growth for both the funds we raise and the donors we cultivate as well as for our alumni, friends and colleagues. What it does is rachet up our capacity to do our jobs much better." People interested in learning more about the system should call Calger at 757-3387.