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ALUMNI CORNERIt’s Up to Alumni To Grow ParticipationBy Brian C. Krisberg ’81 In the late 1990s, Columbia College increased its focus on the participation rate, the percentage of College alumni that make an annual contribution to the University. The Office of Alumni Affairs and Development drafted a detailed Participation Plan that served as a blueprint for much of the College’s participation rate success in recent years. And we have been successful: The participation rate has increased from 31 percent in 1999–2000 to 35 percent in 2005–06. This is significant progress, when one factors in the larger graduating classes of 1,000 or so each year and a level attrition rate (less than 100 percent of donors give each year). So, while the College’s participation rate remains in the bottom half of the Ivy League, we have closed the gap on a number of our peer institutions. This success has brought us to a crossroads in alumni affairs and development. We can be content that we have brought our stats to a respectable level, or we can ask ourselves what each of us, as alumni, can do to take the participation rate to a much higher level. My point is that ultimately it’s up to us to continue the upward momentum in Columbia’s participation rate. This inquiry is wholly consistent with the College’s extraordinary selectivity rate these days, and with President Lee C. Bollinger’s bold approach to academic, space and other issues facing Columbia. Just as it makes alumni feel good to hear that Columbia is as hard to get into as Harvard and Yale, we, as alumni, should contribute toward the College achieving the same participation rate that these schools experience (low- to mid-40 percent range). And Bollinger is pursuing initiatives (e.g., Manhattanville and the $4 billion Columbia Campaign, with $1 billion targeted for the Arts and Sciences and $400 million for undergraduate financial aid) that are intended to keep Columbia on a par with the premier universities in the United States and the world. Similarly, in alumni affairs and development, Columbia needs to aggressively implement programs, and generously provide resources to the professional staff, that will bear similar fruit in the future. Here is my list of suggestions for actions that alumni can take to help permanently solve Columbia’s participation rate riddle: Become part of the volunteer structure. In recent years, the alumni office’s development division, led by Executive Director of the College Fund Susan Levin Birnbaum; Mark Amsterdam ’66, chair of the fund; Geoff Colvin ’74, CCAA first vice president; Ira Malin ’75, Class Agent chair; and Michael Foss ’03, Class Agent vice-chair, have done a terrific job of starting a volunteer structure of alumni soliciting other alumni for gifts (Class Agents). For larger gifts ($5,000 and higher), the Fund Development Council, made up of 30 alumni, meets periodically and doles out assignments. For other gifts, the Class Agent program comes calling. We now understand that institutions that maximize their fund-raising results use a blend of volunteer and professional solicitation. I encourage you to become part of the Class Agent program. Join a Columbia alumni club in partnership with the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA). For those alumni outside New York City, there is a Columbia alumni club presence in more than 70 cities around the globe that has existed for decades. In 2005, the University Trustees funded the CAA to improve Columbia’s brand name around the world. I would like to see CAA become a vehicle for building the number of alumni participating in Columbia alumni club activities. In this manner, many more alumni in the regions where the College cannot sustain an ongoing presence will feel a connection to our school. Support reunions. Reunion programming today, thanks to Executive Director of Alumni Affairs Ken Catandella, is better than ever, notwithstanding that it is held weeks after graduation on a campus void of a student body. We must explore ways of taking reunions to the next level, including examining the feasibility of having reunions coincide with students’ time on campus (graduation?) and better connect generations of alumni and students. The space constraints are tough, but increased attendance and successful events at venues around New York City at recent reunions speak to the possibilities. Increase commitment to career education. We as alumni must do more, when fortunate enough to have the opportunity, to help Columbia students and alumni in their careers and in career education. There are many ways to do this, be it mentoring, internships, networking, including the online Columbia Career Connections, or jobs at our places of employment. Career education and support has not historically been enough of a priority at Columbia. The Center for Career Education, led on campus by Dean of the Center for Career Education Kavita Sharma [see “5 Minutes with …” in this issue’s “Around the Quads”], needs our help to educate College students about internships and jobs and to provide opportunities to undergraduates and young alumni. The “alumni-to-be” factor. In recent years, the College has placed increased emphasis on what might be called the “alumni-to-be” factor, that is, conveying the feeling starting from their first days on campus that our students are attending a special college where they will become part of an excellent academic tradition and have experiences that benefit them for the rest of their lives. The successful communication of this sentiment in all contact between alumni and administrators on the one hand and Columbia students on the other will generate enthusiasm toward Columbia in these same students as alumni. This is a hallmark of our peer institutions that have high participation rates and must remain a focus at Columbia, where significant inroads have been made through alumni participation in summer advising, student-alumni programs and the Ivy record-breaking Senior Fund participation. I am optimistic about our ability to continue to grow the College participation rate. Our students and alumni (especially young alumni) feel passionate in a positive way about their Columbia education and experience, more passionate than my classmates and I felt a generation ago as we ventured out into the world. The onus is now on alumni as a group to realize how much Columbia did for our personal and professional development and to find ways to give back in return.
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