5th Balkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education & 2nd International Conference on Engineering and Business

Education Sibiu, Romania, 15 - 17 October, 2009

2009 LBUS

ALUMNI A STRATEGIC RESOURCE FOR UNIVERSITIES

Stefanescu, Rodica1, Candea, Dan2, and Candea, Rodica3
1

Ph. D. Student, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, stefanescu.rodica@yahoo.com; 2 Professor, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, dcandea@alum.mit.edu; 3 Adjunct Professor, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, rcandea@gmail.ro

ABSTRACT: Alumni constitute an important human and social capital that universities can leverage, through an appropriate strategy, to create institutional-societal shared benefits. The paper is based on a literature and worldwide practice survey, to reveal the strategic potential of alumni associations, and how universities may, and should capitalize on the relations with their alumni. Conference Subjects Coverage: # 9 - Management of engineering and business institutions potential

1. INTRODUCTION
In this age of globalization, with information technology and communications prevailing, organizational change, individual change, and changing concepts and attitudes translate an absolutely necessary adjustment to pressures from outside and inside, from interrelations at all levels and in all areas. Change is the key word of this time, its rate and the scope of its manifestations being increasingly difficult to sustain and control. Networking between individuals and organizations is happening to an ever greater extent in the virtual environment, corporate activities and structures are acquiring global scope, and resources are the name of the game. Power play gets greater emphasis and is exerted in increasingly sophisticated forms. Meanwhile, it is more and more difficult for the planet to accommodate and put up with us. Therefore, the measure of individual and corporate or collective wisdom is given, now more than ever before, by the availability to change and adapt to new developments; by the reaction speed and flexible response to challenges; and by the ability to predict trends and position accordingly, in a correct and proactive manner. In this respect, we believe it is time for academia to respond to the growing challenges and to assume greater responsibility in securing such balance as could still give mankind the prospect of a viable future. At this point mankind has no choice but to reconsider its values and priorities and reposition itself accordingly. Beyond the natural resources the Planet Earth provides, humanitys most important resource is the human resource through each and every one of the individuals making up the human race, as a potential pool of brainpower and action. It is obvious therefore that the best investment humankind can make to ensure its sustainability [1], i.e. sustainable development [2], is to capitalize on this resource, based on education and continuous learning, on lifelong training and improvement. In this approach, academia is where research starts and develops knowledge, discovery, innovation, but then also the propagation of scientific breakthroughs, the shaping of abilities to apply them. Academia also generates and fosters individual and organizational, and social values, as well as the power to anticipate development trends and either to preclude or use them as challenges for evolution or even to generate such

opportunities. That is why academias mission in respect of human resources and its role in the future of human communities is crucial. This being so, we believe universities, too, are organizations supposed to change and exposed to change. As their positioning and mission is crucial in determining the future of humanity, they should be the first to foresee change, prepare society to take the change in its stride, and set an example of responsiveness and sustainability. To this end, universities will have to identify themselves as learning organizations, including also on how to best turn all their resources most efficient using into a competitive advantage. In view of the above, this paper is aimed to sensitize academic management in the Balkan region to the importance of strategically capitalizing on an almost unconditionally and handy available, but still underused, human resource: alumni.

2. ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONS - IN THE WORLD AND IN THE BALKANS

Alumnus (pl. alumni)/ alumna (pl. alumnae) is the noun designating the status of graduate or former student of a school, college or university, or any other form of education, or their community [3]. An Alumni Association [4] is an organized group of alumni, of former students of an education form/ structure. Most such associations are independently organized structures, often legally registered, having their own headquarters, statute, rules and regulations, leadership and possibly even insignia. Most alumni associations are formed around universities or university departments, around student groups sharing a certain pursuit (sport, art, science, specialization, membership of a specific group, etc.). In United Kingdom, or Scandinavian countries, membership in such a community is almost inherent: connections are created and maintained unconditionally, as part of the cultural specificity and particularly of the ethos of the academic world, of clubs and elitist groups. In America, socialization by setting up associations comes so naturally that individual existence, at any age and level, is inconceivable without affiliation to and membership in a

group, which serves as identification and landmark. But such affiliation also involves aspects of mutual benefits [5]. With respect to the integration of academia in the broader community and the ways this can serve the interests of the society, in Japan or even in China the situation is somehow similar, although the underpinnings are different. In Europe, alumni associations are getting greater attention now, while their popularity growing as universities subsidies from the public budget declines, and their financial support depending to a growing extent on relations with and integration in the civil society [6]. In the Balkans, alumni associations, as publicly presented on the Internet, are few and act only as a framework for recording remarkable alumni and organizing anniversary reunions. Therefore their activity is occasional and absolutely formal. They virtually do not foster community or inter-institutional relationships with the alma mater, or else a form of mutual assistance and support, let alone a common evolution, development and differentiation. A first search on the Internet [7] produced the following results regarding the Balkan region: Table 1. The quick internet overview results on registered Alumni Associations (AA), in the Balkan region # Country Number of AA* 1 Albania 1/ Tirana 2 Bosnia & Herzegovina 1/ Sarajevo 3 Bulgaria 1/ Sofia 4 Croatia 2 5 Greece 2/ Athens 6 Macedonia 0 7 Montenegro 0 8 Romania 9 9 Serbia 1/ Belgrade 10 Slovenia 1/ Ljubljana 11 Turkey 14 * These AA numbers refer (only) to indigenous organizations With just a few exceptions, where an alumni association exists, it is to be found in the countrys capital city. And while Turkey and Romania stand out, this is related not only to the size of these two countries and implicitly the number of their academic institutions, but also to their contact and connections with the academic world abroad. However, as if by compensation, we found it very interesting that, precisely in the countries whose higher education system is less developed, there are notable associations of local alumni of foreign universities (e.g.: Cork, St. Thomas, Syracuse, Washington, North Carolina, Auburn, La Salle, Buckingham, San Diego, Manhattan, Queens, Oxford, Zurich, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Windsor, Princeton, Oakland, Seattle, Bristol, Minnesota, Oregon, Stanford, Drexel, London, Newcastle, Wisconsin, Michigan etc). Such alumni associations are either zonal branches of the alma maters in the countries of origin or independent associations related to the branches of the respective universities operating in those Balkan countries. These remarks reveal that a nations cultural specificity also shows in the aspects approached here. But, obviously, the way a certain academic institution considers and uses the alumni resource depends almost exclusively on its management. Consequently, university networking, as illustrated by alumni associations, occurs in many forms and at various inclusion levels. Another, still more significant observation is that, almost symptomatically, the more developed a higher education

establishment, the stronger is the alumni community related to it.

3. BENEFITS OF ALUMNI NETWORKING

The usual, prevailing goals and actions of alumni associations and the alma maters, in their partnership, are: to organize events (reunions, conferences, social events); for instance, Washington State University/ WSU has the most impressive schedule, in point of both variety, scope and type of events, everything being presented by month, day, time and venue, at least six months in advance [8]; to raise funds (modalities and justifications); in this respect, Harvard University is maybe the worlds top performer: not only does it operate with an annual budget of 32 billion USD, from alumni resources included (in varied forms: direct contributions, contracts for various services, scholarships, prizes etc.) but it even has a (strategic) plan to attract, manage and channel the funds from alumni donations/ contributions [9]; to promote certain personalities (VIPs) alumni who reached holding top-echelon positions or academic titles; to issue bulletins, books or other publications; this is roughly the most frequent way of maintaining relations by promoting outstanding alumni and also serving as marketing (direct or indirect) of the alma mater; to facilitate forums for networking and communication by providing, for instance, a free e-mail address for life to all alumni, supplying annual reports or quarterly bulletins, inviting them to anniversary or specific events etc.; an example in this respect is MIT [10], but then many other universities, especially from US; to recruit talent and/ or personnel (notably for corporations); to ensure partnership-based cooperation and affiliation to networks (NGOs or professional, national or international networking, affiliation to certain bodies); to offer a framework for creativity, in support of scientific activity, learning improvement, career development (ideas, case studies, proposing project themes etc.); an example is the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) - where world politics and how to react to it is learned and experienced in an institutional framework, through thematic simulation exercises [11]; to launch and conduct public surveys opinion polls/ questionnaires; many universities and/ or alumni associations frequently resort to this method to identify possible ways of networking improvement and even of revising management strategies/ action plans; to provide support to students, including scholarships and excellence prizes, or carrier orientation and promotion, as well as assistance on retirement plans, memory boosting, travel facilitation, fitness, visiting, leisure, hobbies, action in crisis situations etc.; a noteworthy example is WSU, with its special policy on senior citizens; to motivate the community toward involvement in matters related to the respective university/ academic campus and the values, standards and principles defining it; examples are provided by both WSU and MIT but also Princeton, Yale, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Rochester, Pennsylvania, Cornell, University of Florida also by programs of Educational Travel Conferences [12]. In a nutshell, it can be noted, based on a diagram summing up a statistic evaluation conducted on universities from US [13], that the role of alumni can be defined in a simplistic way by a

number of major coordinates to be viewed also as a measure of success if percentages are considered:

context for alumni associations, is quite different from western practices, basically on account of mindset characteristics. Should we refer to the ethos, to the Romanian culture, unfortunately communication and community unity do not characterize us except perhaps when it comes to a very conditional and transient mobilization in face of a major common threat. Otherwise, it is individualism [22], alienation, egocentrism, mistrust and suspicion, pessimism and passivity, which are prevailing [23]. It is not in our nature to act in common and combine our efforts for the collective good (we know little of it, cannot grasp it and do not really serve it). Neither does mutual aid characterize us, particularly in its Samaritan aspects of financial support. Moreover, in the mainstream mentality, any initiative of asking for funds is associated to humiliation, pauperism and degradation.

Figure 1. Areas of alumni involvement Generally speaking, alumni are viewed as a target group of professionals and consumers, in recruiting talent [14] and clients [15], contributors to charities, or users of technological advances [16], in the conduct of marketing research or organizational performance surveys [17], in fostering interest in innovation, and luring them to act as an incubator of ideas under a university umbrella [18], direct corporate marketing, through publicity for maintaining ties with the university and sponsorship, but also in promoting products for academic use communication with alumni [19] and social networking [20], as to enriching knowledge and community building, opinion shaping, or stand taking on a theme of shared interest [21] etc. To note, however, that the university-alumni relationship is generally viewed, understood and approached, through practical and communication actions, as a bilateral/ reciprocal one. Irrespective of when, how and where the initiative of university-alumni networking started and regardless of the way it was constituted and instituted, the concern to maintain and develop this relationship and interaction, certainly where and when it exists, is perceived, conceived and manifested as an organizational, strategic management effort of both the university and the alumni association/group. When a university has a strategy and a plan on what it wants to obtain from alumni associations, then it will also see to what it can offer them, pursuing to best position itself in a mutually beneficial partnership, or anyway a mutually motivating and profitable relationship. While alumni associations are usually grounded on mutual agreement between former college mates to keep in touch, alumni groups concurrently promote a sense of belonging to the credibility and repute capital of the alma mater. That is why management of alumni associations/groups that is not self-reliant is also geared to maintaining and developing ties with the university, as a way of showing gratitude for the professional training the alma mater provided, as well as interest in affiliation to an academic community with which alumni identify through pride and even loyalty.

Furthermore, it is quite shocking how everyone seems to agree that education, like many other areas of social and community interest, is exclusively an obligation of the state, in point of funding, and if the state cannot adequately fulfill this obligation, we, the citizens, and society/ the community as a whole can do nothing, except possibly go on strike. In our opinion, especially at the academic level, this approach should not be the only way we can see things, on all we can do. Resignation or demobilizing are not solutions of success, let alone of setting value examples, as academia is expected to. In our opinion, samaritanism, charity, as we can learn from western experience, need to/ can be trained and cultivated. More important still is to change thinking patterns, the waitand-see attitude, the inertia of dependence, the shunning of responsibility and self-responsibility, the tendency to ignore certain realities, or the immobility of paradigms. We believe it is important to mention that necessary change tendencies at the academic level are in part identified in the strategic analyses of certain western universities generally acknowledged as prestigious. For instance, Prof. Colin Mayer, Dean of the Business School at Oxford University, opines that if they are to secure their institutional existence, European universities have to reconsider a number of cultural paradigms concerning alumni and funding, but also concerning the evolving strategic management of organizations [24]: In Europe, education is traditionally viewed as something the state pays for, with the idea of relying on donations anathema. The view is very different across the Atlantic, and this is something that European schools are going to have to get to grips with if they are to continue to compete in harder times. In the new economic climate, schools have as much need to adapt as corporations. Partly it is to prove that the alumnus has an ongoing relationship with the school; that we can provide lifelong learning to them; that it creates a sense of community. Surveys indicate that students are anyway taking the lead when it comes to change, both in approaching the idea of alumni and in point of their perception of the relationship with the alma mater [25]. On the other hand, the community, the business community in particular, is establishing new connections and developing new expectations as to what the university can offer [26]. In this respect, the University of Kyoto, for instance, acknowledges and has assumed the managerial responsibility of serving the community and common progress, based on strategic partnership either with the international community [27] or

4. CAPITALIZING ON ALUMNI IN THE BALKANS?!

Reverting to the situation in the Balkan region, it can be noted that here the phenomenon of alumni associations being set up and existing is not only almost accidental, but also lacks support. Besides, the context, insofar as there is a specific

with the business one, on the national market, or with administration and government bodies, to the societal benefit. In this line, so long as facts, statistics, indicators and measurements prove that investing in alumni benefits the university with its image, with ideas, human potential, financial resources and material support (sponsorship, and/ or donations), continuity and society alike, through the assistance the university provides and the impact education has on society, we see no reason why academia in our region, should not take advantage of it. General world experience demonstrates the usefulness of this approach and attests that it must be cultivated. Therefore we consider it necessary to sensitize academic management structures in the Balkan countries as well about a this (alumni) multivalent resource that is readily available and could be capitalized on to obtain multiple benefits, a multiplier effect both in the domestic and in the international environment. With respect to methods (to do it), world experience is a source of information and inspiration, very useful, accessible and long proven in practice. Naturally, culturally specific, local approaches can be developed and initiated, along with approaches borrowed from foreign academia and the international community, adapted to the local spirit. It is important to keep in mind that there are things that can be done quite easily but with large benefits, things so natural that we may neglect them. A great advantage in the Balkan region comes, we believe, from the fact that, with foreign assistance flowing in since the transition to free market economies, and, then, when the integration in the European Union began, more and more facilities are created for exchanges and common educational programs with universities of world repute. In addition, within the trends of globalization and even the current crisis, academia has a growing role in meeting challenges and capitalizing on the opportunities to invest in the human resource potentials, as factors of institutional sustainability, for a sustainable development [28]. This, we believe, could be a tremendous opportunity for universities, as organizations, to reappraise their resources, reposition socially, and design management strategies geared to sustainability [29]. In this process, alumni can be an invaluable success factor, both as a human resource to be capitalized, to the academias benefit, and as its agents of change, for the communitys improved prospects for sustainable development.

invest in best maintaining and permanently developing this (most special) resource. As far as academic institutions and alumni as resources are concerned, this means that any university that succeeds in attracting former students and efficiently managing the relationship with their community stands good prospects to its sustainability. As highlighted throughout the paper, alumni represent a human resource in the broadest and most comprehensive acceptation of the concept, an inexhaustible carrier and generator, at the same time, of all other resources financial, informational, material, technological but also of public image capital, community support and innovation. Consequently, to any alma mater, alumni represent a strategic resource. And it is up to the academic management to put this resource to good use, strategically, in the service of the institution and of partnership, of mutual benefit in the long term.

6. REFERENCES
[1] Dan Candea From Sustainable Development to Sustainable Enterprise Sustainable Enterprise, Studies and Research, published by the Eco-Management Center/UTCN, Volume 1, UTPRES, Cluj-Napoca, 2006 [2] The Brundtland Report Our Common Future - Summit of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1987; http://www.un-documents.net/wcedocf.htm - viewed July 20th, 2009 [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000; Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009; http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alumnus [4] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 [5] CASE - Europe Alumni Relationships, Workshops notes, London and Budapest, 2008 [6] Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Caroline Hoxby, Andreu Mas-Colell and Andr Sapir - " Higher Aspirations: An Agenda for Reforming European Universities ", Breugel Blueprint, Brussels, 2008 [7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: Alumni by university or college visited on June 22nd, 2009 [8]www.wsu.eduolc/pub/WHG/aprograms/main_aprograms_1. jsp visited at April 10th, 2009 [9] http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/ - visited on February 20th, 2009; http://www.post.harvard.edu/haa/html/index.shtml visited on February 15th, 2009 [10] http://alum.mit.edu/benefits/ - visited on March, 5th, 2009 [11] http://www.nmun.org/un_involved.htm - visited on March 14th, 2009 [12]http://alumni.princeton.edu/main/education_travel/online_ programs/; http://www.yale.edu/opa/news/; http://berkley.edu/; www.alumnifutures.com visited on April 21st, 2009 [13] An Idea for Depicting Alumni Engagement, Alumni Future Bulletin, January, 2008 [14] Alumni - Engagement Opportunity Strategies, The Journal of Educators Online, Volume 6, Number 1, January, 2009 [15] Alumni survey of Masters of Public Health (MPH) training at the Hanoi School of Public Health [16] The Changing Landscape in Eastern Europe: A Personal Perspective on Philanthropy and Technology Transfer Book by Richard E. Quadt; Oxford University Press, 2002

5. CONCLUSIONS
While, broadly speaking, engineering means application of scientific knowledge and practical experience in order to create or design useful objects or processes [30], for organizations it means to conceive and implement them to be as functional and efficient as possible. Organizational management, on the other hand, refers to the action of managing the organization or all the processes, as well as the teams and groups of the organization most efficiently, to obtain maximum results by optimally using all (available or potential) resources [31]. In a long-term approach, this is equal to strategic management [32]. In recent years, however, this has been called towards sustainability, i.e. ensuring an organizations prospect to have and maintain indefinitely a competitive advantage positioning [33]. Since any organizations most important resource lies in the human capital, it follows that sustainable evolution is most likely to be achieved by organizations that most efficiently manage their human resources (actual or potential); moreover, sustainability also depends on how much the organization shall

[17] Kathleen W. Ingram, Linda L. Haynes, Gayle V. Davidson-Shivers, Richard Irvin - Building an Alumni Support Community: Tracking Alumni for Program Evaluation and Added Value - College Student Journal, Vol. 39, April, 2005 [18] An Alumni Innovation Institute? - the University of Southern California's Stevens Institute: a university-wide, centralized hub for nurturing inventions as well as inventors, The Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2007 [19] A Novel Business Model Proposed for Harvard's Alumni Communications - The New York Times, May 12th, 2008 [20] Should Universities Create Facebook-Style Social Networks? - Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2008 [21] Malcolm Gladwell - Dunbar's Number & the Strength of Weak Ties -The Tipping Point (Gladwells Blogg - Books and Reviews/ www.alumnifutures.com), August 27, 2007 [22] Constantin Radulescu-Motru The Psychology of the Romanian People, Paideia Printing House, 1999 [23] Elena Hirtan - Romanians - in Euro barometer Top 10: the Europes Unhappiest, Gandul newspaper, November 25th, 2008 [24] Colin Mayer - Said and Done/ Sad Business School at Oxford University, The Economist, Feb. 9th, 2009 [25] Dan Guhr The Student-Alumni Boundary Breaks Down, Alumni Futures/ Alumni Education category, November 17, 2008; http://www.alumnifutures.com viewed on March 3rd, 2009 [26] Somaya Deepak, Williamson Ian O. - Rethinking the 'war for talent' - MIT Sloan Management Review, Volume: 49, No.: 4, pp 29-34 [27] http://www.saci.kyoto-u.ac.jp/?page_id=260 - viewed on January 28th, 2009. [28] Zbigniew Bochniarz Building Human Capital for Sustainable Transformation: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead, in Dan Candea & Simona Nicoara (editors) Sustainable Enterprise, Studies and Research, published by the Eco-Management Center/UTCN, 2006, Vol. 1, U.T. PRES, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, pp. 57-70 [29] Archibald S, Bochniarz, Z. Assessing Sustainability of the Transition in Central European Countries: A Comparative Analysis - The Environment and Sustainable Development in the New Central Europe, Bochniarz Z, Cohen CB (eds). Berghahn Books: New York-Oxford, 2006, pp. 19-44. [30] http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inginerie - viewed on June 26th, 2009 [31] Mary Parker Follet - " Creative Experience, 1924; http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management viewed on June 26th, 2009; [32] Ellen-Earle Chaffee Strategic Management, Amazon, 1983 [33] Michael Porter On Competition, Ed. HBS Publishing, 1998