[Updated January 16, 2008 with link to UMass alumni discussion boards online.]
The Boston Globe reports that the flagship Amherst campus at the University of Massachuestts (USA) will not provide satellite campuses with contact information for alumni from those campuses.
I wrote about UMass-Amherst and its Association membership problems in October.
What should the central shop do? The Alumni Association claims it's protecting the privacy of alumni who would be "peppered" with multiple fundraising requests. The campuses claim that they are losing their independence to the largest of the system's schools.
The Globe, meanwhile, says that
[the central] alumni association counters that it has proprietary rights to the [alumni] list because its membership constitutes much of the database. The alumni association is independent but receives more than $1 million a year from UMass-Amherst and works closely with its development office.
This is a little confusing. Maybe when they say "membership" they mean "alumni population." Paid membership in the central association is a paltry 3% of addressable alumni.
Also, it's not clear how an association that receives "more than $1 million a year" from the school itself can rightly call itself "independent." Interdependent, maybe?
