President's Plan for Alumni Relations at Rutgers

December 7, 2007

Members of the Rutgers Community:

Yesterday I presented, and the Rutgers Board of Governors accepted, my plan to establish a strong new partnership between the university and its alumni. The result of consultation and recommendations by a 27-member Alumni Task Force and discussion with the alumni community this fall, the plan will provide greater opportunities for Rutgers’ 360,000 living alumni to engage in the life of the university.

We are establishing a single new Rutgers University Alumni Association (RUAA) to which every Rutgers graduate will automatically belong without the requirement of membership dues. The RUAA will be the recognized university alumni organization and its board of directors will work closely with the university in increasing alumni engagement, support, and involvement. As we create this new organization, we will also restructure the Department of Alumni Relations to serve the core functions of alumni support and programming. My administration has committed to ensuring sufficient funding to support a vibrant alumni program and to provide Rutgers Magazine to every alumnus and alumna. We will also elevate alumni relations within the university by promoting Donna Thornton to vice president for alumni relations, serving as a member of my cabinet; by promoting Carol Herring to executive vice president for development and alumni relations; and by establishing a joint committee of our governing boards on alumni relations.

The university will put these and other changes in my plan into effect with the help of an Implementation Team that I appointed yesterday. Robert Stevenson ENG’65, a member of the Alumni Task Force, will chair this important team. The new RUAA board and an operating structure for the organization should be in place no later than March 31, 2008.

The foundation of this new direction for alumni relations is a partnership between Rutgers and its alumni, with shared management and shared priority setting. This is essential not only for a successful alumni program but also for Rutgers to reach its place among the top tier of America’s research universities. It is in such partnerships that universities flourish and alumni thrive.

You can read my plan at http://www.alumni.rutgers.edu/transform. While its details deal with structure and programs, the heart of the plan is an invitation to alumni to come home. We welcome and respect our alumni, we value their achievements, and we want them to be as proud of Rutgers as the university is proud of them.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey