I looked at the global picture, what alumni do for their alma mata in Europe and America and how they greatly contribute billions of dollars towards endowment funds
By Uche Nworah, Ph.D
On Friday, 20th of October, 2023, I was privileged to have been invited to be the Guest Speaker at the 2023 Alumni Homecoming of the Faculty of Management Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.
The event which held at the beautiful ASUU Hall inside the university had in attendance the Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Charles Esimone, the Host Dean, Professor PVC Okoye and other lecturers, members and friends of the faculty and university. The alumni were also there as it was their day likewise the students.
I was happy to be back at the university having forged friendships and working relationships with the community during my 8 -year tenure as the MD/CEO of Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS). We facilitated internships for several of the students, especially from the Mass communication and theater arts departments, and recruited some. I also attended several of the university’s events. During this time, we also recruited some of the best OAPs from Unizik FM.
I used my speech to appreciate the university leadership, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Charles Esimone and his team. The host Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Prof PVC Okoye, and all the hardworking members of faculty, the students, alumni and friends of the university. I told them that collectively, they are, “Building a great university. Doing simple things in creative ways and achieving extraordinary results. From a lowly position of 4494 in 2029, Unizik is now ranked the number 1500 in the recently released 2024 Times University Rankings (Number 12 in Nigeria and 31 in Sub-Saharan Africa)”. I felt that this deserved a resounding applause.
I discussed the importance of having a strong alumni; Alumni can host students for internships, serve as career advisors and educational counsellors helping to attract new students, support entrepreneurial initiatives by providing advice and resources for students, raise funds for the faculty and university, form the core of the university’s philanthropic and volunteer network, offer professional training sessions /volunteer to teach some courses, help to Increase the profile of the university both locally and globally as a leader in teaching and research, help to develop more effective mutually beneficial relationships with industry, government and the wider community and to ensure relevance of curriculum and research, hold regular meetings with university authorities for the benefit of students, and finally publish alumni directories, magazines and newsletters.
I spoke about challenges associated with maintaining alumni relationships. These include; weak information management system on the part of some faculties and universities, some alumni don’t appreciate the value and benefits of joining the alumni association, competition amongst other alumni associations (secondary, university etc), lean resources to service alumni obligations and to pay for annual membership fees, weak alumni association leadership, poor resource base to run alumni associations and execute projects, lack of accurate database of alumni, poor students experience leading to apathy when students graduate, poor state of the economy which affects all the stakeholders, inadequate capacity on the part of the faculties and universities to manage alumni relations, and finally the challenge associated with ‘First Mover’ and ‘First Love’. (Alumni will not have equal commitment to all alumni associations of the schools they attended).
I looked at the global picture, what alumni do for their alma mata in Europe and America and how they greatly contribute billions of dollars towards endowment funds from where their universities fund research and development, infrastructure development, recruit, retain and attract the best brains to their faculties etc. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, MIT, Oxford, LSE etc were some of the examples sited.
I encouraged the alumni, the faculty and university to be positive as it is possible to galvanize their global alumni. I used what the alumni of my alma mata, College of the Immaculate Conception (CIC) Enugu, have achieved in the past years. I showed the audience pictures of the multi-million dollar projects the old boys have built in the school. The alumni built a brand new 220 Million Naira hostel (540 beds) for the students, carried out critical interventions in the school such as renovation of classroom blocks and offices, construction of school chapel, awarded scholarships, donated computer and sports equipment, and constructed inner school roads, built the 120 million naira 2,000 capacity multi-purpose hall and alumni centre, construction of the N350M multi-purpose sports centre which was commissioned in 2023 etc.
I also shared with the audience how CIC alumni were able to achieve all these, critically leveraging technology, showing commitment, passion, love, transparency and accountability. I praised the uncommon leadership of successive leaders of the local and global alumni of CIC, the unwavering financial commitment of old boys such as Benson Ejindu who has been named MVP, Chike Okoye the CFO and others.
In concluding, i made some recommendations on what the faculty of management sciences and the university can do in the immediate, medium to long term to leverage power of the alumni, and to help improve alumni relations: Improvement of students experience when they are still in school (quality of teaching, accommodation and leisure arrangements, improvement in student/lecturer/staff relationships. Academic and non-academic staff should adopt the client-centred model in their relationships with students. Develop strategic alumni relations initiatives /Develop portfolio of alumni actions and activities through different life and professional stages. Create/strengthen alumni relations office/desks. Consider domiciling it in the Vice Chancellor’s/Dean’s office. Evaluate existing alumni engagement initiatives. Communicate value of alumni relations to relevant stakeholders. Improve visibility of the faculty and university through strategic communications. Create alumni section on university website, faculty sub-domain etc
Aim to be the first mover/first love. Set up endowments, scholarships, grants and prizes in the department, faculty and university.
The alumni association should devise aggressive and robust recruitment strategies aimed at increasing the membership. The Alumni Association should create more creative and enterprising activities that initiate and motivate members to continue working for the institution in a bid to improve service delivery. In return, the faculty and university should acknowledge the contribution by alumni through recognitions and awards etc. Annual alumni subscriptions should not be too high to the extent that members can not afford it. Alumni associations should improve on accountability and transparency. Elections should hold when due. Leadership of the associations should have a strategic vision and set targets and drive the vision. This will increase confidence and facilitate fulfilment of expectations by members of the alumni association.
I wish to appreciate the faculty and university leadership for inviting me to speak and for all the warm reception given to me. I also appreciate them for the award given to me in appreciation.
* Nworah, PhD, is a communications expert and former Managing Director of the Anambra State Broadcasting Service (ABS).