Declaring that strong bonds with passionate, loyal, and engaged alumni are essential to Rutgers’ future, President Richard L. McCormick announced a sweeping plan to strengthen and enhance the relationship between the university and its 362,000 alumni worldwide.
The president’s plan [PDF], endorsed by the Rutgers Board of Governors at its December 6 meeting, reflects a comprehensive set of recommendations developed by the Task Force on Alumni Relations, together with input from a series of public forums held this fall.
McCormick appointed the task force, composed of 27 university and alumni representatives, in September 2006 to examine the Rutgers alumni experience and structure of the university’s alumni relations program. The president charged the task force with proposing steps to increase alumni engagement and unify the university and its alumni around the mutual goals of advancing the institution and serving its graduates.
“It is in this partnership that universities flourish, and alumni thrive,” McCormick said. “Just as the recent transformation of undergraduate education has improved the student experience at Rutgers, the alumni experience also must be enhanced. For Rutgers to reach its place among the top tier of America’s research universities, its alumni must have a strong and engaged presence within the institution.”
Addressing several areas, from volunteer and administrative structures to funding, the plan specifically proposes:
- The establishment of the Rutgers University Alumni Association (RUAA), a new, single, all-encompassing volunteer structure to include Rutgers graduates from all campuses; current alumni associations may continue to exist within the RUAA, and all current and future alumni automatically will become members of the RUAA
- Lifetime membership in the RUAA for all Rutgers alumni
- Unprecedented access for the alumni body to the university’s three governing boards by expanding the charter of the Board of Governors’ Committee on University Relations to also encompass alumni relations, and creating a joint committee of the boards of Governors, Trustees, and Overseers
- Establishment of an alumni center or presence on each of the three main campuses
- Distribution of Rutgers Magazine to all alumni
McCormick said the public forums helped shape the final recommendations. Conducted on all three campuses and online, the forums brought out many longtime, committed volunteers who articulated their concerns, particularly about the potential impact of a single alumni association on professional school alumni groups.
Effective December 6, McCormick named Donna Thornton vice president of alumni
relations and Carol Herring executive vice president for development and alumni relations. Since 2006, Thornton has served as associate vice president of alumni relations and executive vice president of the alumni federation, while Herring has been president of the Rutgers University Foundation and vice president for development and alumni relations since 2005.
The president also appointed an implementation team to lead the next phase of the alumni transformation. He named Robert Stevenson, former president of the Rutgers Alumni Association and a member of the Board of Trustees and alumni task force, as its chair.
Gene O’Hara, who chaired the task force, said a strong, mutually beneficial partnership between alumni and the university easily became “the centerpiece” of its recommendations. “Nothing short of a full partnership seemed appropriate,” said O’Hara, who is a member and former chair of the Board of Governors.
Gerald Harvey, who served as vice chair of the task force and also chairs the Rutgers Board of Trustees, said the task force was moved to ensure that cherished traditions and involved, committed alumni would not be overlooked, and that future alumni would be cultivated and nurtured more effectively.
“We have not done as good a job as other schools have,” Harvey said. “We need to build the sense that you are part of the alumni family from the day a student becomes a member of the Rutgers community.”
The new structure will lead to enhanced services and opportunities, Thornton said.
“A stronger alumni relations structure can create opportunities for shared experiences among alumni from all schools, be they social, educational, or service-oriented, without campus or college boundaries determining where or with whom they occur,” Thornton said. “We envision Rutgers alumni connecting in multiple settings as members of one university, while retaining ties to their friends, social groups, or professional school peers.”
The implementation team is to begin meeting this month. The president has set March 31, 2008, as the target date for the new board of directors of the Rutgers University Alumni Association and the operating structure for alumni relations to be in place.
The full report of the Task Force on Alumni Relations can be found online at www.alumni.rutgers.edu/transform.