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How You Can Help
“Five things alumni bring that are important to their alma mater: advice, service, money, new students and ambassadorial representation.”
-from the Handbook of Institutional Advancement
A university benefits from the strength of its alumni program. Similarly, the value of a person’s degree is only enhanced by the strength, growth and continued enhancement of his or her university. It is extremely important to the life of a university to have active and strong alumni. They are a university’s largest constituency. Though each student graduates and leaves campus, he or she is an alum forever. As an alum, each person has some responsibility to the university. They should promote it, defend it and be positive about it. If alumni are not proud of their alma mater, who will be? If alumni are not boastful regarding their alma mater, who will be? If alumni cannot recruit students to their alma mater, who can? Alumni (and the Alumni Association) work to perpetuate a university through active participation, new students, donations and etc.
You Can:
Offer Advice
- When asked for your opinion through surveys or other means – respond
- Contact your college or sequence chair with the ideas you have to improve academic programs, offer to guest lecture or let them know that they are doing a good job
- Occasionally, the Alumni Association is asked to nominate alumni to serve on search committees to fill academic and/or administrative positions. If you're asked to serve, please say yes
Offer Service
- Volunteer for committees, events or departments
- Mentor students, hire interns
- Keep the university in mind when making important decisions
- Help us acquire good addresses (when you know someone has moved let us know or ask them to notify us)
Help increase donations/membership
- Be a member yourself
- Volunteer for phone-a-thons or thank-a-thons
- Participate in membership recruiting contests
- Ask people to join the Association (contribute to the Alumni Annual Fund)
- Alert the alumni office to potential sponsors/donors/etc. (this can be anonymous)
- Tell alumni the importance of membership
- When you know that alumni move, let us know so that we may update their information in our database
- Clubs/Chapters: share your local database with us at least annually
New students
- Recruit, recruit, recruit
- Talk up the university to children 7th-12th grades
- Tell alumni out of state that their children can attend for in-state tuition
- If you know a prospective student athlete, let the appropriate coach know (do not attempt to recruit a student athlete yourself)
- Send Enrollment Services names and contact information of “Future Ragin’ Cajuns” so that they may send recruiting materials
- Promote UL among friends and family
- Become a member of ARK, the Alumni Recruitment Krewe and assist the University recruit potential students in your town
If you would like more information on how to get involved with recruiting efforts in your area, please click here.
Ambassadorial representation
- Buy and wear Ragin' Cajun and UL merchandise, fleur de lis and lots of red
- When a press release is issued about you, include being a UL alum and Association volunteer
- Attend UL events and activities
- Participate when invited to functions
- Be an advocate for the University in the community
- Listen when people talk about the university, respond positively, and then let the alumni office know of the concern. We can pass information or recommendations along to the appropriate people on campus
- Always “wear a UL hat” as you go about your business. Ask yourself: “Should someone on campus know about this?” “How will this impact the University?”
These are just a few suggestions. Additions to this brief listing are welcome. Rest assured that individuals truly can make a difference. If we each do a little, and do it consistently, we can help propel the Alumni Association and the entire University forward.
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