Does the University work for the Alumni?
 

Here's the story in short: An organization I'm affiliated with that exists on my undergrad campus is having an issue. (I don't believe the specifics are necessary in this case.)

I sent an email which included:

The best people to move forward with this (right now) are the actual undergrads themselves. Remember, the university works for the students, not the alumni -- and we, too, work for the students.

Meaning, we, the organized alumni of _____ organization, exist to serve the students of said organization and it's best for us to allow them to handle their own problems until they ask us for help.

A fellow alumni member wrote back, saying:

I wanted to just point out one point of contention. The university does also work for alumni. There is an alumni office that is part of the University budget and administration. Also, alumni donations fund many of the school activities as well as development of the school. I sit on the alumni board of the business school at [some irrelevant university] and we have benchmarked other universities. Based on that benchmarking effort, I can assure you that universities recognize that they serve alumni as well and that alumni are a key stakeholder.


I, for one, think he is full of shit. I have worked in university development and realize there are more politics involved than a dozen disgruntled annual fund donors.

So....am I more right than he is? Or am I letting my dislike for him cloud what he's saying?

For ladygreek -- is he being a gypsy moth? Because that's what I'm feeling here and that's what I'm trying to avoid -- an alum helping in ways he hasn't been asked to, making the situation worse for the undergrads.

Unfornatly you are correct, a lot of lip service is given and only when they want money.

But I wonder if this has to do with the organization you were refering to?

As a matter of fact, I contacted my Alumni College to try to figure out how the damn web site worked and Lacey was very helpful.

Have I given any money to them, HELL NO, I paid to go there and I give my time and money to my GLO!

They in turn give a lot of time to the school.

On your first sentence -- definitely. I believe that this particular alum serves on an ADVISORY board. (Now that I think about it, he has been inconsistent and has previously said that he was on a Board of Directors -- liar!) Anyway, I think that alumni advisory boards are usually there to create the illusion that alumni opinions are integral to the development of the mission and overall program of a school. And maybe in some cases, it's not an illusion. My school has an African American Alumni Advisory Board and in addition to one major fundraiser, they have committees to address certain things like academic disparities between Black students and non-Black students. So in some ways, the intellectual capital of alumni can be utilized alongside the monetary resources.

But all in all, I think alumni don't see that this is a courtesy to them as donors and not something the school must provide.

The organization I'm referring to is one of several on campus who are having the issue that I refer to. Let's just call it an issue that would generally be handled by a Student Affairs office -- access to a benefit.

I believe that alumni should stay out of the daily operations of a university particularly when it comes to student organization. I had my day in the sun, now it's someone else's turn. My role is to support them monetarily and with advice -- when, and only when, they ask for it.

I would not feel right allowing other alums to wage a letter-writing or phone-calling campaign if it is not what the students have asked for.

I also have to be realistic about which alumni the university would take seriously -- if we had a Rockefeller or Kennedy, it would only take one phone call, I'm sure.

Make sense?

I think it depends on the university. Is your university a tight community? Mine is, and thinks of its current students, alumni, parents and spouses, faculty and staff as "family." My mom still gets a Christmas card from the school every year, and she didn't even go there! Of course the school should listen to the current students, but those students will be gone in four years whereas many came before them and many will come after. They shouldn't be the only ones that are heard.

My university is making a huge effort to keep the alumni involved and it embarked on an initiative this year to meet with alumni around the country to find out what alumni like and don't like. Why did they do that? Because the alumni won't contribute to or associate themselves with something they don't believe in. I'm talking about money, career networking, volunteer support, athletic support, etc. My university does work for me, and I expect it to since I paid a heck of a lot of money to attend that school and get my degree there. I have a vested interest in my degree retaining its value, and if the school does not conduct itself in ways that retain or raise my degree's value, I get pissed off. And pissed off alumni usually don't contribute in any number of ways. So it's in the school's best interest to keep alumni happy while also listening to the current students.

My university embarked on a similar initiative and I was interviewed last fall. (I guess our development directors went to the same conference, lol)

I will have to reflect on everything else you said. Your thoughts are appreciated. :)

How large are your university's alumni endowments?

Does a university work for the current students or the alumni? The answer is yes. Essentially, a university serves two 'masters,' the current student body, and the alumni base, which in most cases, outnumbers the student body. A university has to keep the alums happy, so that they'll give money back to the school. As you may well know, many grants are contingent upon the percentage of alumni and/or employees which donate back to the school, even if it's $1/year. Those grants in turn support programs for the student body.

Look at recent examples in my home state where the university president, who was popular with students, did something that pissed off the alumni. Now one has just installed a new president; the other is still functioning with an interim president. (the schools are the University of Richmond and the College of William & Mary)

It's a balancing act. Some schools do it better than others.

Not really, does it make sense to you?:rolleyes:

First off, it was a she and not your presumtion that is was a he?:rolleyes:

So, you do not feel rightous about people calling you for donations? Am I correct?

The Schools get money from States, not enough of course, but, what do we as GLOs get, mostly NADA!

I have been pushing for Congress to give us as Greeks a break for donations and have been contacting my Reps. What have you and anyone else on here done?

NOTHING!

Way to totally jack a thread onto another topic. The question is not about GLO's (or would have probably be put under Greek Life) but specifically about universities and their alumni, Greek and non-Greek.

Senusret - I think it does depend on the school you are an alumni for and the influence that the alumni of that school have. I think you are right on with the Kennedy reference. At SC, alumni have a lot of power because they give A LOT of money.

But to your point, I agree thatit is the undergrads who really need to be putting the effort forward, not the alumni. If this is a student run group that is having issues with the university, the students should take a stab at dealing with it and should ask the alumni for support if they feel that it is warrented.

I only know about the total endowment, which is at $1,000,000,000 as of last fall. 76th largest endowment; for comparison, Harvard's is number one at $29,000,000,000.

I agree with you to a point...I guess my personal philosophy is different from many other alums. I donate directly to the student organizations that I want to support, which irks the alumni office, of course. And I stay out of the broader affairs of the university.


I think you definitely see my point here. I am not saying that alumni shouldn't write letters or do things to support the students we have ties to: performing arts groups, service orgs, GLOs, whatever..... but I guess....omg, I'm going to say it.... I don't want to encourage HELICOPTER ALUMNI!!!!

(And I think the guy from my initial post is, indeed, a helicopter alum.)

According to Pepperdine's annual report from last year, the university had a $712 million endowment at the end of 2007. I've heard it's over $800M now. Not bad for a small university established in 1937.

my university did little for me as an undergrad and they do even less now for the undergrads

they won't care about the alumni untill another couple of weeks or so when they realize that only 1% (from what i've heard, could be wrong) of what they thought were getting in terms of donations from alumni actually will go to them

(everyone hates the new president, and i've always not trusted Dean of Students/VP of whatever he is now)