What makes Spartans proud?

Onlinecollegesdatabase.org recently reported that SJSU grads pocket an average of $51K in starting salaries. That’s more than all but two California public and for-profit private colleges and universities. SJSU grads start out earning more than recent grads of all UC’s except Berkeley, and all CSU’s except Cal Poly.

We posted this news on SJSU’s Facebook page, prompting an explosive reaction from our followers: nearly 1,000 likes, more than 200 shares and at least 40 comments. Data suggests that this story reached nearly 34,000 people through Facebook alone.

Our current brand work is largely about unleashing Spartan Pride. It’s critical that we know what really makes friends and followers of SJSU proud.

Limited qualitative (focus group) research has been done; a longer, quantitative study is coming. Until then, we’re somewhat reliant on anecdotes.

On Facebook, reaction to the salary story has been warm (“proud to be a Spartan”), giddy (“I’m so happy!!!!!!”), skeptical (“…where do they get their data?…”), parental (“…my son/daughter is a Spartan!…”), anticipatory (“Cant wait to get here in August!! SJSU San Jose Staaaate!!”), weird (“Way too man cheaters, slackers and moochers at SJSU”), pragmatic (“it’s all because of silicon valley”), hopeful (“Yay can’t wait for m(y) daughter to graduate next year”) and nostalgic (“Class of 2011  proud to be a Spartan”).

I’m curious: what stories do you think make Spartan Nation most proud?