alumni futures

The Bologna Process and Alumni Relations, Part II

Back in November of 2009, I looked at the Bologna Process of European higher education standardization and how it might affect alumni relations in Europe. In this second and final post on the topic, I'm sharing a few more comments from Dr. Daniel Guhr and Simon Lange of Illuminate Consulting Group. Illuminate's consulting practice focuses on international strategic development in higher education.* 

In this post Guhr and Lange address:

• Threats and challenges to alumni engagement under Bologna
• The prospects for alumni loyalty to a specific institution
• The most likely time frame for changes to appear

Will threats or challenges to engagement make it harder for institutions to maintain already tenuous connections with alumni?

Daniel Guhr: Yes, but this is independent of the Bologna Process. If institutions ignore alumni demand patterns, the alumni will walk away. Down the road, having effective alumni networks will be a recruiting benefit, and it already works this way for small, elite private institutions (primarily business schools). It will be more than three years before we see concrete examples emerge – once the first full cohort of Europe-wide "Bologna System" alumni leave universities.

How does this relate to traditional "study abroad" experiences?

Daniel Guhr: It will have a negative effect on intra-European mobility, as fewer students can move around. This is being hotly debated however.

Simon Lange: Dan is right. Though the process encourages mobility when obtaining your degree abroad, the reforms have significantly increased students' workloads, and introduced the element of time pressure. In the end, this discourages students from spending a desirable semester in Sevilla, or elsewhere.

Will alumni be likely to transfer their affinity or loyalty to a university, a country, an academic program or perhaps a host institution in their target country?

Daniel Guhr: I would ask this differently. What makes alumni more loyal in the European context? First, the presence of effective alumni relations to begin with. Second, the the impact of the international experience on the alumnus's life. Third, the brand effect. You can create a matrix that displays these factors and put in the respective values. We'll see very different dynamics emerge. In short, we should ask, "What works for the alumni?"

Simon Lange: It is likely that the European Union's goal of fostering a European identity among future professionals will succeed. For scholarship recipients, loyalty to the donating country or organization, or to the EU, is likely to be higher. ICG recently conducted a nationwide survey of alumni from all eight universities in New Zealand, and found that non-New Zealand citizen alumni felt more closely connected to New Zealand if they received a New Zealand-sponsored scholarship. We compared their affiliation levels with those of alumni who received funding from other sources, and those who received no scholarship funds.

Based on both ICG's research and my personal experience in Europe, I'd say that students who go abroad feel a strong connection to their host institution, either for an exchange or for an entire program. For example, there are two Facebook groups for Erasmus students at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain), each with more than 1,300 members. This is anecdotal evidence, but worth looking into more systematically. 

Over what time scale will changes play out?

Daniel Guhr: Some changes are already taking place. It will three years or more before we have early examples to use as case studies. In 5 to 10 years we'll see major initiatives that will produce good results. Some will come earlier, but will likely not be well-conceived. It will be more than ten years however before mainstream European universities will see any benefits – and only if they commit to building alumni networks.

* I serve as a volunteer member of ICG's Academic Advisory Board.

Global Competitiveness Ten Years Out: Download the Report

Last week I quoted Daniel Guhr on changes to European higher education and implications for alumni relations. This week I am staying with the international theme.

In September I was an invited presenter at a day-long seminar in London (UK), co-sponsored by Dan's firm, Illuminate Consulting Group and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Imperial College London hosted the event, which was attended by some 45 higher education leaders from more than half a dozen countries around the world. The event was titled:

How the Global Economic Crisis is Shaping Competitiveness Ten Years Out: 
 International Recruiting, Research and Relationships

The proceedings of that meeting are now available and you can download them in PDF format via this link: 

Download ICG-Chronicle-Imperial London Proceedings 09 09 [2.4MB PDF] 

The seminar was moderated by David Wheeler, Managing Editor (International) at the Chronicle, and the other speakers joining Dr. Guhr and me were Mary Ritter (Pro-Rector, Imperial College London), Maurits van Rooijen (President, Compostela Group of Universities), and Madeleine Reeve (Pro-Vice Chancellor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia). 

Presentation content from our talks is in the Proceedings. Anyone seriously interested in the future of international higher ed recruiting, research and relationships should find the contents provocative and useful, and I encourage you to download it and read it. It is free and doesn't require you to provide any contact information.

During 2010, similar invitation-only seminars will take place in conjunction with major international academic meetings, providing senior leaders with opportunities to

• focus on strategic issues,
• share intensive discussion of issues critical for professional success, and
• network with peers across international borders.

Note: I serve in a volunteer capacity on the Academic Advisory Board for ICG.

The Bologna Process and Alumni Relations, Part I

The Bologna Process is radically changing European higher education. According to the European Universities Association, this reform process is designed to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in which university degree levels (undergraduate and graduate) will be "harmonized" and "connected." The goal is to maintain diverse national education systems,

...while the European Higher Education Area improves transparency between higher education systems, as well as implements tools to facilitate recognition of degrees and academic qualifications, mobility, and exchanges between institutions....Most importantly, all participating countries have agreed on a comparable three cycle [bachelor's, master's, and doctoral] degree system.

The EHEA currently comprises 46 countries, and while the Bologna Process (like any multinational policy framework) is subject to criticism, it is here to stay for a while, and it is influencing higher ed policy across Europe.

I wondered how Bologna might affect the development of alumni relations across the countries involved? I asked two people who are very knowledgeable in this area: Dr. Daniel Guhr and Simon Lange of Illuminate Consulting Group. Through Illuminate's consulting practice (which focuses on international strategic development in higher ed) and their own diverse educational experiences, Dan and Simon have well-informed, high level perspectives. With their permission, I am sharing some of their basic thoughts on Bologna and alumni relations.

With the goal of keeping this post a readable length, I am presenting their answers to just two questions here. A future posting will look at additional aspects of this topic.

What will Bologna mean for international alumni relations?

Daniel Guhr: There are domestic and international aspects. The domestic outcome is unclear. In practice, many universities are encouraging bachelor's degree alumni to stay on for a master's degree. Since alumni relations in most of continental Europe is still in its infancy, there is not an established framework that Bologna can change in practical terms. Global brand leverage will be important, and Bologna can provide a more globally recognized degree. But there is a missing component in practical terms: a well-established framework for international alumni relations. Alumni themselves may increase the demand for this, but that doesn't require Bologna. It is happening already, albeit at modest levels.

Simon Lange: We can expect a modest increase in alumni demand for university support. Over time, Bologna's relative emphasis on more vocationally-oriented degrees (especially at the undergraduate level) will create a pool of alumni whose educational experience is essentially a targeted preparation for the job market, more so than in the past. Future alumni and their universities will gradually improve their understanding of brand leverage, and the potential impact of well-designed alumni programming.

Are there any examples yet of international educational brands adapting to the Bologna Process?

Daniel Guhr: The standardization of degree structures officially concludes this year, but some transitions will take years. It's a bit early to say how Bologna might affect the educational brands, although we should expect some impact eventually.

Simon Lange: One example is Berlin's Einstein Foundation, in part an early attempt to push brand differentiation (ironically, by creating an umbrella organization to promote the research excellence of several institutions). In addition to attracting research funding, the Foundation's goals include increasing the visibility of Berlin as a center for science and research. I have my doubts, but alumni could potentially benefit in terms of brand leverage.

A future posting here will look at 

• the prospects for alumni loyalty to a specific institution; 
• threats and challenges to alumni engagement under Bologna; and 
• the most likely time frame for changes to appear.

We Should Learn About Network Science

Last week I spoke at two events in Europe. First, Illuminate Consulting Group (I'm on their academic advisory board) and the Chronicle of Higher Education teamed up to deliver a day-long seminar for senior university leaders from the UK, Australia, Canada and other countries. Imperial College London hosted the program, titled How the Global Economic Crisis is Shaping Competitiveness Ten Years Out: International Recruiting, Research and Relationships.

Second, with Illuminate's founder, Dan Guhr, I spoke at the annual meeting of the European Association for International Education (EAIE) in Madrid. I first spoke at that meeting in 2007. The topic this time was technology's role in changing international student recruiting and alumni relations.

The presentations generated thoughtful discussion and useful insights (for me, anyway). The London program was convened under the Chatham House Rule* so I won't attribute specific comments to individuals. But here's a brief general treatment of one specific idea for readers of Alumni Futures. 

It's Time We Learned About Network Science

Both meetings last week consisted of multiple presentations stitched together by a single thread: how networks behave. Many of the discussions were built almost entirely on the idea of the many networks that hold together the educational disciplines: alumni networks, student networks, academic networks, research networks, business or professional networks – and of course, social networks.

This theme occurs more and more frequently in our professions, and that's one reason I write about it here. But mostly, I think it can help us be more effective at maintaining a useful role in the lives of alumni. (I also just think it's interesting.)

But only one of the presenters I heard explicitly acknowledged that we were talking about the formal aspect of how members of networks behave, influence each other, and relate. Of course, for decades (centuries, I suppose) we have known that we belong to networks – families, companies, towns, sororities, sports teams, graduating classes, political parties, religious groups, and more. But only recently have the structure, behavior and characteristics of networks under different conditions become a systematic scientific pursuit.

The mathematics behind network science is beyond me (which won't surprise anyone familiar with my academic achievements in that field). However, there is a wealth of accessible literature that explains in understandable ways what we do know about networks, and it is past the time for fundraising and other advancement professionals to learn about the simple ideas that underpin network science. Learning about scale-free networks, power law distributions, Metcalfe's and Reed's Laws, and more has completely changed my understanding of what alumni and student networks are, and what their members can do with them.

We constantly talk about "the alumni network" but I don't think we have a very good idea what a network really is, how it works, what its potential value is, and how networks evolve. Even common sense observations seem to be beyond some (otherwise sensible) people's ability to understand. For example, people often blame the network when they don't get results – in a job search, a business deal, or a simple referral. I've heard this from people who had recently joined LinkedIn, expecting job offers to appear with no effort on their part. One speaker in London said, "Networks don't fail. Network members fail." With a few specific exceptions, I think this is generally true.

Below are links to some general resources that you can use to get started thinking about networks. If you have your own favorite sources of information on this topic, or constructive criticism of the ones I've listed, please share links or citations in the comments.

• Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
• How to Build Your Network by Brian Uzzi (Harvard Business Review)
• Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan Watts
• The Network Thinker – a blog about self-organizing behavior in networks

In future postings I'll mention a few other ideas I absorbed at last week's interesting meetings. And I'll also talk about what might influence the success or failure of alumni networks in particular.

* At a meeting held under the Chatham House Rule, "participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed." The point is "to encourage openness and the sharing of information" at the meeting. Most people use the plural "Rules," but there's only the one rule.

Photo from the EAIE meeting in Madrid by Andy Shaindlin, all rights reserved.

White Paper Available: Activating Alumni Networks with Twitter

[Updated 30 January, 2009 with link to comparison of Twitter directories.]

[Updated 2 June, 2009 with link to updated research on Twitter users and usage patterns.]

I am pleased to announce the publication of a free white paper on using the "micro-blogging" service Twitter to activate alumni networks. My colleague Elizabeth Allen and I have tried to capture a snapshot of Twitter, and explore its potential for higher education advancement.

About the White Paper
The main purposes of the white paper are to inform readers about what Twitter is, and suggest ways it might enhance relationship-building and alumni interaction. We did not intend to list the "right" and "wrong" ways to use Twitter, but we do share our opinions on what uses might prove effective. 

Twitter's development, role and uses are evolving so quickly that any description will soon be out of date. So we offer a look at Twitter's current status, with the hope that this serves as a departure point for your own efforts and ideas.

Don't know what Twitter is? Haven't used it? No problem; the first sections of the white paper give a crash course in what Twitter does and how it's used. The next section asks, What is Twitter's Potential for Alumni Relations?

And if you've been sitting back, wondering what to do with Twitter, we've included a short list of simple ideas to serve as a way to get started. We'll update this list periodically and I'll post new information on the blog, as warranted.

We close with links to potentially useful resources, including the names of other web-based communication platforms that you might want to explore.

Finally, we have included an Appendix with results of our recent informal survey on Twitter usage in higher ed. Our survey showed, among other things, that

• 20% of respondents had either never heard of Twitter or had heard of it but didn't know what it was;
• more than one-third of respondents are currently using Twitter; and
• about one-third know what it is, but haven't tried it. 

Which category are you in? I hope you'll leave your comments about the white paper, and about Twitter on the Alumni Futures web site.

Click the link below to download the white paper:

White Paper: Activating Alumni Networks with Twitter  [2.2mb PDF]

Note: Fans of Alumni Futures on Facebook always get a sneak peek at white papers before others. After we sent out a link to the white paper on Friday, we received our first reviews – appropriately enough, via Twitter:

 

And the folks at MrTweet sent a thumbs up as well:

What Does a Community Manager Look Like?

Have you heard the job title "Community Manager"? It's been around for a while, and often describes someone assigned to monitor a company's reputation on blogs, in social networks, and anywhere else that customers are discussing the firm, its products, its services, or its competitors.

What are the ideal characteristics of a community manager? In 2006, analyst Jeremiah Owyang described an effective community manager as "an odd looking being" with "big ears and eyes, and a small mouth."

It struck me upon reading this that it's also a pretty good description of a tarsier, the little beast pictured here.

• Big eyes: to watch consumer trends and behavior;
• Big ears: to listen to what customers are saying to each other; and
• Small mouth: to keep quiet when needed, resisting the urge to defend the company at every turn.

In fact, according to a book called Primates in Question, each of a tarsier's eyeballs is as large as its entire brain. Think about that as a metaphor for observing alumni and donors.

Specifically, think about how we interact with our alumni in social settings, in the real world and online. We can easily hold a normal conversation with an alumnus at a reception or dinner. We let them talk about themselves, we ask them questions, and we're ready with relevant items that might be of interest or utility to them.

Why is it so hard to do this online? We swoop down on Facebook Groups and Pages – and now LinkedIn discussions – and we don't listen. We bombard people with event announcements, save the dates, headlines, press releases and links to web pages. And then we email them all the same information, which is also on the web. People using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, our web page, RSS and email will hear the same information six different times in six different places. We wouldn't say the same thing six times in a row to someone at an event. Why do it online?

One answer to that question is that we're using the new online channels to deliver marketing the old fashioned way: yelling our message at people, to compete with other messages. This is necessary on television and radio, in print and on billboards, where we have to force information on people and hope they notice. But online we have their permission to communicate – they joined our group or gave us their email address. We should be able to share our information in a normal tone of voice, in the course of regular interaction. And like the tarsier we should mostly be quiet and just listen and look.

Owyang (who was an online community manager in industry) has useful pointers about the role of a community manager, and I think his guidelines apply to us in our everyday work. After all, don't we manage the relationships between our community members and the institution whose identity binds them to one another?

Related:

Jeremiah Owyang on the hazards of being too connected to the community

Photo of a tarsier by Erwin Bolwidt via Creative Commons

Place-Based Media: a New Alumni Experience

What if alumni could return to campus and view virtual pictures and signs; could experience spoken stories and written memories of other alumni, students and faculty?

What if students could learn about campus history and personalities the same way, and all they needed to view and hear these stories was a PDA or a cell phone?

A few years ago, during a cross-country flight, I looked out at the landscape below and thought about how cool it would be if someone invented an interactive overlay for the window, like a heads-up display. It could tell you the name of that river, the town in the distance, the height of that peak, and even the history of the places you were flying over.

Now something like this is within reach, with prototypes being created, deployed and tested.

Dean Terry and others are working on it. Dean is the director of the new Emerging Media area at the University of Texas – Dallas. He's also director of Mobile Lab & the Online Worlds Lab. He thinks and writes about mobile media, virtual worlds, social networks, and more. He's also a film-maker, and he teaches.

Dean recently gave a talk titled Conversations in Place – Research, Collaboration and Art in the Emerging Mobile Space. A core project Dean is driving revolves around what he calls a "virtual visual layer of place-sensitive data" or "place-based media."

"When you're on the web," he points out, "it doesn't matter where you are physically." So something local, something geographic is missing from our web experience. We do create virtual "places" online (such as Second Life). But, he asks, why not turn that paradigm on its head and add virtual content to real places?

Mobile devices, he says...

...can be context sensitive so that where you are not only matters, but is a primary driver of interaction and use of the device. We can create a kind of "augmented reality" by delivering information about place. Hold your device up and view the data in real time on the screen, or hear a recorded message delivered to the spot where you're standing.

Now picture a campus landscape like the one outside your office, but silently and virtually augmented by content from alumni, faculty and students.

Dean's group is working on an application for iPhone called Placethings. It's still not quite in beta, but it's not too early to think about its potential for higher ed advancement or instruction.

In his talk, Dean also mentioned that the legal, political and ethical implications of this technology are potentially enormous: would you like it if your neighbor hung a virtual sign on your house that said "The person who lives here is a jerk"?

These "annotated experiences" raise many complex issues: social filtering, community standards, and the question, "how much information is too much?" It's all part of the world beyond Web 2.0. And it's coming, with or without our participation. But if we engage in the discussions and planning, and anticipate the benefits and potential pitfalls, we'll be positioned to evaluate these tools for our constituents' benefit.

Can you go outside the box and suggest alumni relations, admissions, development or communications uses for a technology like this on your campus, at events, or elsewhere in higher ed? Leave a comment.

Think this is going too far, or that it represents a risk? Leave a comment.

And if you're interested in hanging out with the people making these things happen, check out the Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, California:

Where 2.0 Conference 2009

Photo of Where 2.0 attendee using analog recording device, copyright James Duncan Davidson.

Community Marketing and Finding the Fish

More nuggets of wisdom from web strategist Jeremiah Owyang's excellent blog. This week he talked about corporate approaches to social web site strategies (i.e., "how should our company participate in social networks?"). Jeremiah wasn't writing about colleges and universities, but his comments on chipmaker Intel's approach apply to many kinds of organizations — including alumni associations.

In the context of the "build or join" dilemma — should we build our own online community, or join in on the ones our community members seem to be using? — Owyang quotes an Intel marketing manager:

[O]ne of the requirements of his marketing efforts was to not link to Intel.com. Rather than try to join a community then pull [members] away, the marketing efforts joined the community and stayed there — likely where the trust is highest.

Jeremiah has several survey-based sources of data showing that consumers trust their peers' views more than those of analysts, marketers or (ahem) bloggers.

Owyang then says something that I think it is critical to understand:

Savvy brands join communities where they exist, rather than solely trying to coax customers to the corporate website...

But how will we know if our participation in social sites is paying off? He says that we have to measure...something.

Marketers are often measured on the amount of traffic they generate to their corporate website, but in this case, Intel will have to measure using different attributes such as interaction, viral spread, and maybe even a survey.

Alumni associations should probably try to measure awareness, as well as whether alumni feel (and are) knowledgeable about the institution today. A kind of "net promoter" score is informative as well, as Carnegie Mellon's Judy Cole commented here way back in March of 2007.

Bottom line, to quote Jeremiah: "Rather than coax users to your irrelevant corporate website, savvy brands will fish where the fish are." 

I know, we think our association site is relevant to our alumni, because after all, they attended our school. But do they think it's relevant? Does it solve their problem? Fulfill their need? Represent something beyond an interesting curiosity? This is our challenge.

Photo of Icelandic fishing boat by Andy Shaindlin

What Do Science Students Learn? Ask Alumni

The old cliché about going to college in the United States is that it's "the best four years of your life." You do a little reading, a little writing, and let mom and dad pay the bills, while you go to parties and carry on.

After graduation the fun is over: you have to get a job, pay rent, start a family...and the carefree student life becomes a fond memory which engenders nostalgia and longing for your alma mater. That's the traditional pattern.

Now consider a science, math and engineering school where the curriculum is considered the most challenging in higher education, the admission standards are second to none, and people often mention the ratio of Nobel prizes to alumni and faculty. I am the alumni director at that school (although not an alumnus of it). I'm glad I ended up here; nearly every day I meet someone or hear something that amazes me.

Campus tour guides tell wide-eyed high school visitors and their parents that studying here is intense — like "drinking from a fire hose." As for having fun as an undergraduate, there's a campus saying about that too: "Grades. Sleep. Social life. Pick two." In almost nine years on this campus, I have never heard anyone claim that the undergraduate experience was "the best four years" of his life.

Graduates don't leave with warm, nostalgic feelings. They leave, in some cases, feeling like they have been treated harshly. And yet as alumni they turn out to be at least as loyal, dedicated and supportive as alumni of the two other institutions where I have worked (both of which are major universities with successful alumni relations and development records).

A few weeks ago a biology professor here asked me whether, as alumni director, I had any insight into this transition from disenfranchised student to grateful alumnus. Anecdotal experience supports the following model, but I wonder if others have an opinion about this. It goes like this:

1. Students arrive here passionate about math and science. They come here to learn "engineering" or "physics" or "biology." And they do learn those subjects, and much more, at the highest level possible.
2. Many years later they stop and look back on the difficult academic experience. They realize as alumni (maybe ten years after graduation, maybe fifty years) that what they really learned here was how to solve hard problems.

Alumni can apply these analytical abilities, which they learn in the context of science, math and engineering, to any career path they choose. I've spoken to alumni who are attorneys, physicians, venture capitalists, artists and entrepreneurs, as well as academics, university presidents, and government leaders. They all say "what I learned doing homework or in the lab was the key to my success as a professional. I learned how to solve hard problems. I learned that I could solve hard problems."

So, the theory goes, you can learn science, math and engineering pretty much anywhere. But the ability to solve the hardest problems in almost any endeavor (sometimes without even realizing it) is the real outcome of the difficult undergraduate experience here. And therein lies the key to graduates' appreciation for their education: gratitude to the institution for giving them those tools, which the alumni have taken with them into many other fields.

I told the biology professor one other thing. I don't think a college undergraduate can know that the real skills she is learning have nothing to do with geophysics, quantum mechanics or chemical engineering. Even the brightest teenagers don't have a context for understanding how their Physics 1 homework set will help them become finance executives, or how completing chem lab will help them to run a software start up. They'll recognize the connection only after it happens. And that's when the edge comes off their feelings about their student days, and they begin to appreciate what they really learned during those late nights in the lab.

Photo: Andy Shaindlin

Harvard's Endowment, Spending Policies, and Alumni Engagement

Harvard alumna Carroll Bogert is associate director of Human Rights Watch, and a member of Harvard's class of '83. In a May 25 op-ed piece in the New York Times ("Enjoy the Reunion. Skip the Check."), Bogert states that Harvard University (Massachusetts, USA), with its disproportionately large endowment, needs to revamp its spending practices to match its aggressive investment policies.

This argument is increasingly common now, as the public (including lawmakers) questions why schools with multi-billion dollar endowments continue to ask alumni for gifts. Many small donors feel, as Bogert points out, that the university can do without their modest contributions. So as I read the piece, I thought it was going to be about Harvard's finances.

But Bogert's specific complaint is actually about Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust's unwillingness to meet with a group of alumni who want to fund higher education in Africa:

A few hundred alumni have formed Harvard Alumni for Social Action [HASA], to try to channel 25th-reunion giving to destitute universities in Africa. In three years, we’ve raised $425,000 — a lot for the University of Dar es Salaam but hardly a match for our annual class “gift.” And evidently not enough to win the respect of President Faust, who has begged off meeting the group. Harvard clearly doesn’t like any effort that might divert a dollar away from its Cambridge coffers.

As a special interest group, HASA is dedicated to a specific cause. The money raised for the University of Dar es Salaam is noteworthy, and could obviously make a real difference to that institution. But why use sarcastic quotation marks around "gift"? When alumni give money, it's a gift. Every alumnus is free to decline to give when asked. Alumni can even ask to be removed from solicitation lists. But very few do.

Bogert says that Faust's failure to meet with the group means Faust doesn't "respect" them. This sounds passive-aggressive; there are many "respectable" groups that college presidents don't meet with, for a variety of reasons. Having said this, and assuming it's true that Faust won't meet, I am curious to know Faust's specific reason in this case. It seems like a reasonable expectation on the part of HASA leaders to speak officially with the president.

One more thing about respect, though. Bogert says she'd "have to be drunk" to "fall for" fundraisers' appeals. Her fellow alumni have elected to fund - at extraordinary levels - their alma mater. But she's sober, and they're metaphorically drunk? That shows disrespect. And anyway, she's a fundraiser too.

You have to give Bogert credit though: equating a popular complaint (Harvard is too rich) with a noble cause (Dar es Salaam is too poor) is a neat public relations maneuver. Getting it into the Sunday NY Times is fancier still. Maybe the Harvard question and the Dar es Salaam question are related, and maybe they aren't. I'm not really sure. But either way, a lot more people are talking about those causes this weekend. That's probably good.

Bogert claims to be surprised that "Harvard clearly doesn't like any effort that might divert a dollar away from its Cambridge coffers." Why should Harvard like it? Harvard, like any big organization, is in business to stay in business. You don't get a $30 billion endowment by turning down donations. You can turn Bogert's complaint around and say that "HASA doesn't like any effort that might divert a Harvard alum's dollar away from Dar es Salaam." You couldn't blame Bogert if she made that claim on HASA's behalf; she can't be surprised that Harvard wants to keep its alumni donations.

Finally, Bogert hypothesizes as to why alumni continue to donate (dare I say "give"?) to Harvard, when the school doesn't currently need the money. Donations, she says, are driven by:

• "the unparalleled networking opportunity that alumni events represent";
• Harvard grads' fear that legacy applicants won't gain admission if their parents don't give; and
• tradition.

To this last point, she asks :

...would universities still go to the trouble of organizing reunions if they didn’t make a gigantic amount of money from them? We can all enjoy the get-together, even if the university’s message today seems wildly off-kilter: Open your wallets, graying nostalgics, it’s reunion season! And suspend the critical thinking we taught you here, way back when.

She's right to ask about why reunions exist. Alumni relations is a building block of fundraising. But she is still conflating endowment payout policies with annual giving procedures. I am guessing that the "gigantic amount of money" Harvard has currently comes more from endowment income than from reunion classes' gifts.

As for critical thinking, Bogert should realize that while the University sounds hypocritical, so do some of its alumni. They decry Harvard's efforts to raise money, while they themselves benefit from the reputation, the visibility and the name-brand that fundraising enables and sustains.

But alumni of a prominent institution owe it to the school, to themselves and to society to use that institution's name for good, if they can. Raising money for African education is a worthwhile goal and Bogert is right about one other thing: Harvard is sitting on "a gargantuan pile of cash" which continues to grow, and a "new financial model" is at the very least a reasonable proposal.

Bottom line: Bogert's piece isn't really about endowment. But all the same, Harvard will benefit in the long run from engaging with this group on terms that both organizations can support. Bogert and HASA should be commended for asking tough questions about Harvard's finances. If they can manage to ask those questions without resorting to antagonistic sarcasm, they might even start getting some answers.

Enjoy the Reunion. Skip the Check.

Harvard Alumni for Social Action

Wall St. Journal: College Endowment Tax Idea