Alumni living outside
New York have often complained that the farther away from
Morningside Heights you go, the lighter Columbia's blue fades.
Three years ago, the Alumni Association sought to bring
non-resident alums back into the fold by creating a National
Council of alumni. Its mission, according to Director of Alumni
Programs Roger Lehecka '67, who began working with the
National Council last summer, is "to improve communication and
outreach of alumni outside New York and better serve alumni
needs."
The original idea was to have 100
delegates from all over the country who would meet in New York once
a year. That has evolved to a program of rotating target cities.
The College is workingclosely with alumni in the cities over a
two-year period, at the end of which alums are supposed to be
closer to each other and to the mother ship. Local leaders will
continue to recruit alumni volunteers to enlarge the community and
its participation with the College.
For the pilot program started in
September, 1998, nine cities were chosen as a focus: Atlanta,
Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, and Washington D.C. Lehecka has met with local alumni
leaders in each city and his office on campus helps organize events
and build a communication network.
"There are so many alumni out there
who've never been asked," Lehecka said. "If we're willing to
provide certain support from here, a lot more alums are interested
and willing in helping out."
I'm here to make alums feel more connected.
The College wants to see more alumni
involved with recruiting, with the local Columbia Clubs, with
mentoring programs, and with fund-raising, although Lehecka
stresses that money is not the primary motivation behind the
National Council.
"Everyone expects that if alumni are
more involved they'll give more money," Lehecka said. "But one
reason this office is in Hamilton Hall and I report to the dean is
to make it clear that I'm here to make alums feel more connected.
Asking for money is not in my job description and is not going to
be."
What is in Lehecka's job description
is the mustering of alumni troops in the target cities in order to
serve alumni needs better. He put the process in motion by calling
alums whom he already knew, one by one, from his years as dean of
students. They in turn are supposed to reach out to other alumni
living nearby.
One challenge is to recruit alumni
leaders from different generations. In Atlanta, for example, they
are experimenting with informal gatherings such as a Thursday night
happy hour in an effort to attract young alumni.
Lehecka has sent out some alumni
directories, created local contact lists, and provided mailing
labels or sent out invitations to local events directly. The
council fosters student-alum networks for mentoring and job
placement through events such as ones held in Atlanta, Cleveland,
Dallas and Los Angeles during the winter break that brought
together local alumni, students from the area, early admits and
their parents.
"Everyone left having good feelings
about Columbia," said Janet
Frankston '95 about a January gathering in Cleveland that she
helped organize. "It's important for alums to get calls inviting
them to an event or asking them to help interview or to give a
student advice rather than saying, 'We want your
money.'"
The way most alums traditionally
have been involved is through interviewing prospective students.
But with the numbers of applicants increasing so rapidly in recent
years, alumni who already help out are becoming overburdened. So
Lehecka is trying to involve more alumni to work with the
admissions office.
Lehecka said he has had to be
careful, however, not to "steal alums away from admissions."
Similar concerns have come up regarding local Columbia
Clubs.
"We're working on coordinating so
alumni don't get multiple appeals from different offices," Lehecka
said. "We want to be an initiator to get things going; then the
admissions, development and career services offices will keep
things going well."
Lehecka's office is working with
career services on local job listings and placements and has
contacted the visitors center to arrange for alumni who are
visiting New York to come back to campus for a
re-orientation.
Lehecka said that every city is
different in terms of its level of current involvement, its
leadership, and its appetite for programs. The techies in San
Francisco, for example, maintain an updated web page that
advertises a full calendar of events and outings
(www.columbiaalum.com). Alumni in other cities may not be up to
doing this on their own, so in response Lehecka's office will
assist in setting up prototype web pages.
"If there's one thing I can say
about every city it's that we could send a faculty member every
month to every city and there would be an audience," Lehecka
said.
To save money while providing such
sought-after faculty visits, Lehecka has been working to arrange
events with faculty members who already are
planning to be in a given city for
another purpose. This worked out in Dallas, San Francisco and
Chicago within the past year.
Lehecka said that the initial
nine-city roster has proved a little overwhelming, but that the
response from alumni has been encouraging. "I haven't had the
experience of calling anyone and asking for help, not for money,
and having them say no," he said. The next cities under the
spotlight starting in the fall are Denver, Philadelphia and a
Florida target.
If you are in a target city and
want more information or to enlist, contact Roger Lehecka at
lehecka@columbia.edu or (212) 854-2940.
