Does the University work for the Alumni?

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by ladylike

How large are your university's alumni endowments?

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.

Originally Posted by Quala67

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.

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.

Originally Posted by TrojanWoman

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 that it 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 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.)