alumni futures

2010 HERS Institute: For Women in Higher Ed Administration

Each year I post an announcement of the Bryn Mawr Summer Institute presented by Higher Education Resource Services (HERS). This year's information is now online, and open for applications. 

The application deadline is coming up (1 March, 2010) so if you're a mid- or senior-level manager in higher education, check it out now. The program is in depth (12 days long, beginning 18 June) but there is nothing comparable for female administrators in higher ed. 

It is not a conference. It is a leadership training institute with a proven track record and a unique focus on the following broad themes:

• Understanding the Higher Education Environment (trends, technology, cultures & constituencies);
• Planning & Leading Change (strategy, negotiation, conflict resolution);
• Managing & Investing Strategic Resources (higher ed finance, budgeting, and advancement); and
• Leadership Development (leadership styles, career stages, and finding or being a mentor).

Enrollment is capped at 70 participants.

More information is available at www.hersnet.org, or call Judith White directly at 1+303/871-6866. Tell her you heard it from Alumni Futures!

The Bologna Process and Alumni Relations, Part II

[Updated 18 February, 2010: InsideHigherEd interview with Paul Gaston, author of The Challenge of Bologna: What United States Higher Education Has to Learn from Europe, and Why It Matters That We Learn It.]

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.

CASE Calls for Senior Level Volunteers

CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of Education) is currently accepting nominations for senior volunteer leadership positions. 

These include positions on 

• the CASE Board of Trustees, 
• the three professional area Commissions (Philanthropy, Alumni Relations, and Communications & Marketing), and 
• the CASE Europe Board of Trustees. 

CASE seeks senior-level advancement officers from all types of institutions and from all segments of the profession. Self-nominations are appropriate and encouraged.

To submit an online nomination, simply go to the CASE web site's online form.

Hundreds of volunteer leaders have committed their time and talent to the advancement profession. You can join them, or help steer capable people to this opportunity.

Thanks!

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.

Is Your School Too Old To Fail?

Recent news items about the anniversary of the failure of Lehman Brothers asked whether large, private financial institutions should be protected by government – whether they are, in effect, "too big to fail."

It's interesting to ask something similar of a college or university. If I told you that Oxford or Princeton was going to shut its doors, would you suggest that they should be bailed out? Protected? If so, would you advise using public money for the cause?

Many of the most prominent schools have been around for hundreds of years. 

Are they "too old to fail"?

The University of Bologna is more than 900 years old; just about the only organizations that resilient and long-lasting seem to be universities and organized religions.* 17 American colleges, universities and schools operating today are older than the United States itself. Few national governments can claim the long runs of which schools like these can boast. 

So schools last a long time. But what exactly is it that persists? Is the school we revere today really "the same" as the one that first bore its name? Of course not.

Schools (like many organizations) survive in name, but they must rebuild, reimagine and retool themselves ceaselessly, one small segment at a time. Saying that Bologna hasn't changed is like saying that a Model T Ford in an antique car show is "the same car" that Henry Ford rolled off the line in 1920. In reality, piece by piece it gets fixed up, "restored," and "maintained." A headlight here, a bumper there. Engine parts wear out and are replaced. Rubber moldings dry and crack and new ones are attached. The body fades and pits and the car is sanded and repainted. The upholstery gets torn, and....well you get the idea. Is it really the same car?

And so it is with our schools. We are lucky in some cases to have architecturally significant buildings that survive, but even those have to be updated for technological reasons, for safety, to please donors, or increasingly, to be "sustainable." So the buildings – like the institutions they serve – survive, but in forms that are new and often distant from their historical roles.

U.S. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes (Brown University class of 1881) famously quipped of his alma mater, "It is always the old Brown and it is always the new Brown." We would be hard pressed to sum it up more succinctly or more eloquently. And we'd be ill-advised to forget it.

* Iceland established a parliament in 930 A.D., but had no centralized administration until about 330 years later. 

Photo of old buildings and new students at the University of Bologna, from Michele Ursino via Creative Commons. Click photo to enlarge.

Baylor University Cuts Ties to Alumni Association

[Updated 13 November, 2009: Inside Higher Ed reports that Baylor's independent association cannot perform its traditional role at Commencement.]

[Updated 28 October, 2009: Inside Higher Ed reports that Baylor has rescinded its offer to absorb the independent association. Article includes links to several prior background accounts.]

[Updated 26 October, 2009: Dallas Morning News reports on the relationship between the university and its Alumni Association.]

"I am just as confused about the Baylor Alumni Association and Baylor University parting ways completely as everybody else. And I too feel like there are holes in the story and some things aren't being said..."

That was one reader's reaction to a story on the Waco Tribune-Herald's web site yesterday, under the headline:

Baylor University removes alumni association's link from its Web site

Why would a university remove from its site the link to its own alumni association? And shut off the toll-free telephone number the school had previously provided for the association? I don't know the history of this, but the presentation of the story by the Waco paper combines with readers' comments for an interesting narrative.

Apparently part of a planned separation so that Baylor's Alumni Association could take on independent status, differing versions of the split are causing friction between the school and its support organization. In particular, the ongoing presidential search on the Texas school's campus is mentioned by both sides' supporters as a point of contention. The University's site dedicated to the search is appropriately peppered with press releases and background information from the school and its governance group. In contrast, the Alumni Association's version of the same site provides links to a number of published commentaries about the process itself and the actors involved.

A quick scan of Facebook shows official groups and pages for the school itself and the Association, but as yet no discernible discussion around these topics (other than passing comments about the last president's departure). If these issues are truly of broad interest to alumni, we might expect to see Facebook groups appear supporting one side or the other.

Meanwhile, with most independent associations moving from independent to dependent status over time, it's unusual to see a school's association moving in the opposite direction. Whatever the background or political and personal battles may involve, the reader quoted above may well have it right: some things haven't yet been explained publicly and if there's more to report that seems worthwhile I'll pass it along here.

Baylor Alumni Association

Waco Tribune-Herald story about the debate

Inside Higher Ed's summary of the situation

Baylor's "Alumni & Friends"

Photo of sign from Baylor campus by Flickr user Alan Levine via Creative Commons.

Antioch Update: Alumni to Buy College

Quick update to the Antioch story. 

The University has agreed to transfer ownership of the campus to a group of alumni who hope to re-open the school in a couple of years. However, many hurdles remain before the financially troubled institution can be revived – not least of which is the school's run-down physical condition, as well as legal and financial steps involving bond holders and the Ohio state Attorney General's office.

These links provide background and updates:

Chronicle of Higher Ed: Update on Antioch

New York Times: Alumni Group to Buy College

Inside Higher Ed: A Deal to Revive Antioch

Prior coverage from Alumni Futures:

Antioch Alumni and the "Angry Wake"

Antioch College Will Close As Previously Planned

Antioch's Second Chance? Alumni Step Up

University of Colorado: Mandatory Student Fee for Alumni Dues

On June 8, the Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription required] carried a story about plans at the University of Colorado to implement a new funding scheme to support alumni activities. 

Starting with this fall's freshman class, the university system's alumni association will be requiring students to pay a lifetime-membership fee of $70 when they enroll. Under the association's previous model, [alumni] were asked for $45 annually only after they graduated. 

The story is quite brief and doesn't clearly explain how administrators arrived at this model. Obviously, charging students one more fee, using existing billing and payment systems, is an easy way to generate cash without the overhead of a dues program. Collecting association dues ordinarily requires staff members to track annual payments, generate renewal notices, and monitor the administration of benefits.

The alumni association's interim director, Ron Stump is quoted as saying that "students can know they won't be solicited for the rest of their lives." Maybe, but this assumes that it would ever occur to a student that they'd have to pay dues in the first place. I'm not sure it will feel like a favor when the fee gets tagged on to the tuition, the room, and the board plan. Most students may not even know they've "joined" anything – because they haven't.

Also, most students and many alumni don't know the difference between an alumni association and a development office or foundation. So there's some chance that alumni who thought they wouldn't be solicited "for the rest of their lives" may be confused (or even resentful) when they are asked to donate to the university later on.

Stump meanwhile says that the alumni association will work with the career center on campus "to help place students in jobs and internships with alumni." That's good, but that's also something every association should try to do, regardless of dues structure. 

100% of the money will go to the association, and they can increase the amount in future years. So how much cash are we talking about? According to the school's web site, in 2007, 5,555 first year undergraduates enrolled. Under the new scheme, the association would garner almost $390,000 in "dues" with that size freshman class. 

On its way to the bank, the association should be careful not to think they've solved the alumni network problem. They'll have generated cash flow, which is no mean feat in days of disappearing affinity revenues and shrinking support from general budgets and investment income. But I would dispute the claim by a student leader who says that this approach "builds a community." He further explains, 

When you're setting foot on this campus, you're part of a huge alumni network. We're all Buffaloes together.

Every large institution has "a huge alumni network." What matters isn't whether it exists. What matters is whether alumni can activate the network and access its resources to fulfill their needs and solve their problems. And it takes more than dues money to accomplish that.

I'm curious to hear others' thoughts about this approach to funding alumni activities. Do the pros outweigh the cons?

University of Colorado Alumni Membership page

Predicting the Future of Alumni Education – The View from 1972 and 1988

In October 1972, almost 40 years ago, Brown University's Ad Hoc Committee on Continuing Education issued a report. I first saw this document within a week or two of starting in alumni relations at Brown in early 1989. The Report was included in a 1988 update by yet another committee, whose work included looking forward and prognosticating about the future of alumni lifelong learning and the role of the alumni association.

I do like to address the future of alumni relations, but "futurism" is fraught with flaws and risks. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see what a blue ribbon committee thought about the future of alumni education, first from the viewpoint of 1972, and then from 1988.

The 1972 report exhorted the institution to invite its faculty members "to invent, devise and create new means of motivating and guiding alumni into better use of books, records, film, television and other other instruments of learning which surround us in such abundance." This multimedia approach included an outline of how videocassettes, still the realm of institutional use might soon enter the "consumer market" and be accessible to individuals. Sears Roebuck, they wrote, would soon start selling videocassette recording and playback units to consumers for just $1,600. Each.

Another technology recommended for bringing the campus educational experience to alumni in their homes was "CATV" – known to the next generation as Cable TV. And the committee urged the university to bind "sound sheets" into the alumni monthly, so that alumni could play audio of faculty lectures on their record players at home. The committee stated that "institutions like Brown must cast off the strait jacket of established formats and take advantage of these technologies."

Now fast forward your VCR to 1988.

At the dawn of the Internet era a new set of technologies was on the horizon. Rather than anticipating the ability to watch a videotape for $1,600, the second committee was pondering how to use the power of computer networks to connect far-flung alumni to campus via personal PC. In a section titled Dialing Brown via the computer, the report's authors invoked "the Communications Desktop," a combination of technologies then "in the planning stage." The concepts they described 21 years ago reflect several technologies we currently use to obtain information remotely – and we use many of them to keep our alumni connected to us and to each other. 

For example: 

1988 Prediction: "Alumni nationally and throughout the world would be able to subscribe to materials provided by the "Communications Desktop," no matter how specific." When? "The best guess: 1993."

2009 Reality: Correct. RSS provides this ability now, although listserv and USENET newsgroups provided similar functionality at the time of the '88 report.

1988 Prediction: "[By 1998], video will be sent across networks as quickly as a computer copies a file today."

2009 Reality: Correct. Streaming video hit the web in 1998, just as predicted ten years earlier by Brown's "information experts." That year, 284.6 million video streams crisscrossed the Internet.

1988 Prediction: University library systems "will be electronically accessible in the future for those alumni seeking all manner of reference material..." But "economics, not technology, stand in the way of sharing with Brown's extended family the vast resources of a great university." 

2009 Reality: Correct. They nailed that one, especially the economics part. Sure, tremendous amounts of free material are online, but expensive journals and databases remain off-limits to off-campus users because of Byzantine licensing policies. But open access publishing has begun to change that and an online academic information revolution lies just ahead.

The Communication Desktop as imagined by Brown's 1988 Alumni Education group [click to enlarge]:

Finally, the committee described a scenario, likely to become a reality "by the time the next continuing education report is written." Given the 16 year interval since the previous report, the 1988 group probably expected the following scenario to take place circa 2004.

• An alumna in Houston logs in and searches the Brown University library and the national library for documents she needs for her job as an Exxon scientist. "The search takes a minute and appears on her computer at home."
• She downloads a topographic map and has it printed in a field office. 
• Then she switches to her personal account and looks at the student newspaper, the alumni magazine, and a campus news periodical online.
• Noticing an article about one of her professors, she sends him an email and a family photo.
• She sees a listing for a talk that is being delivered on campus that night – 1,800 miles away. She requests "to have the videotape downloaded onto her machine within 24 hours after it is given."

The only thing the committee really missed was the advent of live digital video, superseding magnetic tape or other physical media that would require conversion to electronic formats. Information subscriptions, online news, remote print on demand, library access, and media sharing – the 1988 group hit several big nails on the head. 

While it's fun to review our predecessors' predictions, what about the view from 2009? Rather than make predictions of my own, I'm going to do as the 1988 committee did, and quote MIT professor Marvin Minsky:

You have to form the habit of not wanting to be right for very long. If I still believe something after five years, I doubt it.... Anything you hear about computers should be ignored. We are in the Dark Ages.... You can read what your contemporaries think, but you should remember they are ignorant savages.

And that includes me (and you)...so no predictions from this savage, not this time around anyway. But if you have a prediction, please do leave a comment.

What is the Commission on Alumni Relations?

This morning I gave a brief presentation to attendees at the CASE Institute for Senior Alumni Relations Professionals about the mission and work of the CASE Commission on Alumni Relations (COAR). As current Chair of the Commission, I wanted to make sure Institute attendees knew about this channel for guidance and direction from the profession to our professional organization. During the discussion, Dickinson College's Rick Delgiorno mentioned that it would be great if even more people knew about the Commissions and their work. So here's a brief summary of the points I made this morning.

There are three Commissions: Alumni Relations, Philanthropy, and Communications & Marketing. Each Commission's goal, broadly stated, is to "support the creation and dissemination of knowledge…and advise CASE on programming and services relative to their respective area."

The Commissions meet twice a year (once in person and once via web and phone), and the Commission chairs serve as CASE Trustees. The Commission on Alumni Relations currently has 20 members representing five countries and a cross-section of institution types: public and private, large and small, secondary and post-secondary. We work from the premise that, as their institutions' largest permanent constituency, "alumni are vital stakeholders in their institutions." As the CASE web site explains, the Commission "frames and directs research to

• examine and evaluate professional practices,
• develop and monitor programs and services in alumni relations, and 
• ensure that they reflect current knowledge, emerging issues and trends and the highest ethical and professional standards."

A set of past resources produced by COAR is available from the CASE web site, and includes 

• Principles of Practice for Alumni Relations,
• a CASE Management Checklist for Alumni Relations Professionals,
• CASE Guidelines for Alumni Relations on Establishing Vendor Relationships 

and more.

Current COAR projects include a pilot version of the CASE Benchmarking Toolkit. This survey will allow member institutions to measure their achievements in alumni relations, including year to year comparisons within a program and accomplishments compared with peer institutions. Use of the Toolkit will rely heavily on CASE's ability to help member organizations identify Communities of Practice for benchmarking purposes, a topic we've discussed here in the past. 

At this week's meeting COAR will also discuss the effects of the economy on alumni programs: organizational structures, staffing, campus partnerships, and communication practice are on the agenda. And we'll consider working jointly with our colleagues on the Communications & Marketing Commission to explore how best to maintain effective communications with alumni and friends during difficult economic times.

What Do You Think? How can the Commissions help CASE be relevant? What could we do that would help institutional and individual members of CASE get more out of their membership in the organization? Leave a comment here on the blog, or send me an email.