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ALUMNI CORNERBack to SchoolBy Brian Krisberg ’81 Columbia's strengths begin with the Core Curriculum, the best general education curriculum in the country. They continue with the breadth and depth of offerings from the excellent Columbia faculty in 29 departments and the never-ending opportunities afforded to our students by living in New York City, the greatest city in the world. Historically, however, alumni relations has not been one of our school's strengths. Columbia simply has not made the necessary investments in alumni relations that many of our peer institutions have been making for decades. My sense is that this is changing, with many benefits to be realized by College students and alumni in the years to come. My exposure to Columbia alumni relations began in the late 1980s, when I joined the Columbia College Alumni Association (CCAA) Board of Directors, the leadership group of College alumni. I joined the board during a combative phase in relations between the University and its College alumni. The board spent most of its time assisting the College dean and his senior staff in analyzing whether the College was receiving its fair share of University resources and funds raised from its alumni and devising political strategies to raise the College's profile within the University. It's no surprise that in this non-collaborative environment, not a lot of time was spent on devising ways to get alumni to return to Columbia to mentor undergraduates or meet with other College alumni. Change began with the arrival of President George Rupp in 1993 as he stated his goal of placing the College at the center of the University, which defused the conflict to a degree. Change really picked up in the late 1990s and early 2000s when, under the leadership of Dean Austin Quigley and with the hard work of Dean of Alumni Affairs and Development Derek Wittner '65 and his senior staff, the College's Office of Alumni Affairs and Development significantly expanded the quality and quantity of programs for College alumni, students and parents. Just as the implementation of coeducation is an enduring legacy of former deans Arnold Collery and Robert Pollack '61, the elevation of alumni relations will be one of Quigley's enduring legacies. 
The success of the College's alumni relations program serves as a model for how to implement a school loyalty-based program. 
The success of the College's alumni relations program serves as a model for how to implement a school loyalty-based alumni relations and development program. The success is traceable to the commitment from the College's central budget, together with incremental funds provided by a small group of College alumni. These resources have enabled the College to press ahead with various participation plans, with very encouraging results. Participation in the Columbia College Fund has increased by nearly 25 percent during the past 10 years. This performance must be repeated during the next decade to make Columbia fully competitive with our peer schools. Interestingly, and not surprisingly, the central University administration and the University trustees have taken note of the College's success in alumni relations. In spring 2005, the University instituted and funded a new organization, the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA). Replacing the Alumni Federation, the CAA represents a University initiative to implement an alumni relations program that successfully reaches across Columbia's 16 schools. Through this vehicle, Columbia hopes to raise the visibility of the "University" with its alumni, increase the value of a Columbia degree and ultimately raise the University-wide participation rate - the percentage of alumni who donate to Columbia. Inevitably there will be overlap between the University's rejuvenated alumni relations program and the College's ongoing school-based alumni relations program. Some would view this as a good problem. It is essential that the CAA and the College alumni office manage this overlap effectively, have a strong relationship and develop complementary programs for all alumni. It is worth noting that the CAA initiative was conceived and has been led by some of the most loyal and generous College alumni trustees, including Bill Campbell '62, Richard Witten '74 and Phil Milstein '71. Under this backdrop, the CAA should not be viewed as a return to the divisive past that I described, but rather as an important element in Columbia's long-term financial and spiritual health as it embarks on the unprecedented $4 billion Campaign for Columbia. The successful integration of CAA, on the one hand, and the CCAA and other schools' school loyalty-based programs, on the other, is one of the most important agenda items at Columbia today. While Columbia is on the verge of getting alumni relations right, work remains to be done. For example, the College and the University must demonstrate their commitment to the alumni population by creating an "alumni house" at a central location on campus that welcomes alumni back and creates an alumni presence for students. The College and the University each have come to the realization that by working together on alumni relations, the University can realize its goal of creating a vibrant University-wide program and the College can achieve its essential objective of growing its base of loyal and dedicated alumni who stand ready to help and support today's College students and participate in the life of the College.
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