Alumni Association an active part of USU business worldwide
Wednesday night the Utah State University Alumni Association sent off this year’s graduating class of 2001 in what it hopes will not be a final farewell.
“We want students to know that this will always be their university,” said Carlos Smith, director of Alumni Relations at USU.
Alumni have always been welcome to come back and use USU libraries, watch the games or hang out in the Alumni House. Now they can also drive around with an Aggie license plate, hang an Aggie flag from their porch or, no matter where in the world they end up after graduation, join or start an Aggie Alumni chapter.
A lot has changed in the six years since former President George H. Emert asked that the association be strengthened. Six years ago, instead of eating pizza and playing games for prizes like a camping tent and a computer at the Senior Sendoff, the seniors stood for two hours in a reception line to shake the university president’s hand and ate punch and cookies.
After the 1960s, the association lost momentum – alumni chapters died away and the student organization wasn’t strong. Now, 47 chapters with more than 4,000 sustaining members have sprung up. Every county in Utah has one. There are also chapters in California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C., and four in other countries with active, supportive members.
USU has an alumni following like private institutions do, Smith said. Almost every student is at least a few hours away from home here, so many leave USU with strong ties to the area and the friends they made here, Smith said.
“USU is really unique that way,” he said. “We have a real loyalty to our institution.”
Some of the biggest events happen with alumni outside of Utah. Every time the basketball or football teams play a game in a state with an alumni association, the members gather for a tailgate party. More than 300 alumni gathered before the Big West Conference Championship game in Anaheim in March, Smith said.
The chapters also host socials and gatherings, like the Cache County chapter’s golf tournament in the snow earlier this year.
The association’s official mission is to promote the interests and welfare of everybody who’s attended USU, which takes money and willing hands.
“Realistically, why do we have an Alumni Association?” Smith said. “Well, our mission statement tells why, then we have to show them.”
The gatherings are fun, but Smith said he knows people come to support a cause. This year, 62 freshmen and transfer students will enter USU on scholarships paid for by the Alumni Association – all of the money was raised through raffles or other fund-raisers that are part of every alumni event.
“People are too busy; their lives are filled with activities. They don’t need a social,” he said. “So we’ve looked at that objectively and we provide the activity surrounded by a cause.”
The association hopes to eventually have a scholarship fund large enough to offer some amount of assistance to the children and grandchildren of every USU alumnus, Smith said. For now, they’ll keep raising money and keeping the Aggie spirit alive, he said.