Who’s An Alumnus?

There was recently a great discussion on the CASE LinkedIn Forum that started with a question about whether a dues-paying alumni association should allow non-graduates to join. We generally agreed that being inclusive is better.

I’ve seen this question pop up regularly. Since most students now attend more than one college before graduating and over a third transfer, if your alumni association is closed, you should open it up.

Consider the several generations whose enrollment might have been interrupted by military deployment or those students who wanted to stay but a family circumstance or pressure to “get a more marketable degree” pushed them to graduate elsewhere. They may very well feel like your institution is “alma mater.”

• Decide and convince your board to allow non-graduates who are interested to join the alumni association and to be called “alumnus.” What’s a non-grad? Anyone who attended for even a day. Some institutions are even allowing parents to join.
• A best practice is to start inviting non-graduates when they show any positive interest. Any event attendance, email, or phone call puts them on your radar. Reaching out to every non-grad automatically has real pitfalls. You probably don’t want to invite a former student who was dismissed.
• Automatically invite the non-grad partners of graduates. You may get some polite declines, but you might also re-engage a future “power couple.”
• If you regularly use “class years” for reunions or other purposes, put in place a system that allows alumni to choose their class year or have several attached to their record so they receive communications for the events and news they care about.

I’m passionate in these recommendations because I have seen them in action. My own alma mater adopted the alumni of the college that Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Sandburg attended when it closed in 1930 during the great depression. There is only one known living alumnus of Lombard College remaining. They have had a long history as members of the Knox College community.

I asked a friend on campus about those dear adopted Lombard grads, and their total giving over the years exceeds $1.28 million—all to Knox.

The belltower from long-gone Lombard College was removed years ago and placed on the grounds in the middle of the Knox College campus, where it stood for many years. I used to walk inside it and stand under the bell. I thought Sandburg’s spirit would help me write. It’s also where I asked my wife to marry me.

Alumnus means family, and everyone who is touched positively by your institution is family. Use the term openly.

Drawing of Lombard College bell tower at Knox College circa 2010 by Knox alumnus, Jason Connell.