The Great Raft Debate
Posted on May 6, 1987From the University Report (published by the GAA 1970-94)
Recently I spoke at a professional conference as part of “The Great Raft Debate.” A chief development officer, a chief public information officer, and I were asked to assume that we had been cast at sea and only one of us could survive. To make the discussion more lively we were to assume that a new university president facing severe budget problems had to eliminate all but one of our three departments. We were to explain why our unit should survive.
Unfortunately, such a debate implies that alumni directors, development officers, and public information officers do not recognize our interdependence. It further suggests the abolishment of the alumni association by a University CEO would be possible. As our readers know, our alumni association is independent of the University and could not be dissolved by the University.
The debate was great fun but ended up mostly as a discussion about the competing importance of alumni relations compared to fund raising, leaving the public information officer as an interested spectator. Let me share with you just some of my arguments for choosing the alumni office to survive.
Alumni affairs is the oldest unit of institutional advancement. For decades, the alumni office performed all of the public affairs and the fund raising functions. Indeed, this continues to be the case at many colleges and universities, particularly those that are private. In most instances, the alumni office has the greatest identity, visibility, and credibility among the alumni.
A choice as presented reflects the attitude that the institution has towards its alumni. The greatest contributions, financial and otherwise, come when alumni are well informed and fully involved in the vital areas of the university. Reducing alumni involvement only to that of contributors or fund raisers would demean this relationship and shortchange both the institution and the alumni. Alumni can and should do more than write checks and attend athletic events.
Alumni can lobby legislators, recruit students, represent the institution to the public, and, of particular importance, serve as loving critics of the University. Alumni can give advice, assess the curriculum and help select senior administrators. Alumni relations should be an end unto itself and not a means to an end. For those who believe that fund raising officers are more important, remember the most important elements of fund raising— donor identification, donor cultivation and donor solicitation — are all performed usually by alumni.
Our Association provides the means for alumni involvement and provides very necessary services for the University. Alumni records are essential for any kind of ongoing communication. Alumni chapters bring alumni together to learn more about the University and to participate in projects of benefit to the University. Weekend seminars, vacation colleges, homecoming, class reunions, the student alumni association, alumni travel, alumni awards — all are important opportunities for alumni to become informed and involved. The alumni magazine and this newspaper bring news about university challenges and achievements, Association news, and personal news about Carolina alumni.
As the ” raft debate” concluded, I observed that at most institutions the alumni officer is the only senior institutional advancement officer who is an alumnus of the institution. In many cases, the chief development officers’ first commitment is to their profession and, as a result, they tend to move from campus to campus. Thus, the alumni office also preserves institutional traditions.
The high profile given to development at many public colleges and universities is because increasingly chief executive officers have come to believe that their own performance will in part be judged by how effective they are at fund raising. And because many such CEOs have little training in fund raising, they have understandably turned to the development professional to shoulder much of this burden.
Alumni commitment to the University is life-long. Faculty and staff come and go, but alumni realize that the value of their degrees is measured not in the reputation of the university when the degree was received but in the institution’s present standing. And so alumni not only have an emotional attachment but they also have a professional interest in seeing that the University’s excellence is maintained and enhanced.
As we prepare for another graduation and class reunions, as we come home to Chapel Hill to refresh our understanding of the University and renew friendships, let us come not as visitors cast at sea but as equal partners in the important work of our University.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
