Upfront: The MSUAA's New Role During Orientation
During my first year as executive director, although the MSU Alumni Association focused on maintaining the quality of our programs, we also undertook many new initiatives. One in particular--our newly aquired role in freshmen academic orientation--resulted from the collaboration of many people and will, I believe, yield long-range benefits for MSU alumni relations. At each of the 18 summer freshmen Academic Orientation Programs (AOP), the MSUAA hosted a session called 'What it Means to be a Spartan.' This historic moment marked the first time ever the MSUAA played a major part in the freshmen AOP.
Many persons, including the registrar, the director of admissions, the AOP coordinator, the staffs of University Relations and the MSUAA and the students who participated in campus focus groups, are to be commended for helping this new venture. To create a deep and lasting appreciation for the concept of being 'Spartan,' and to help students understant one's lifelong alumni role, we designed a 45- minute session. We faced the challenge of having to conduct this session during the period immediately following dinner, after a day of intense orientation activities, in competition with seven other concurrent sessions. Lacking a model, we designed our own. And, I am pleased to announce, ours proved to be a successful first attempt.
We began with observations based on our own experience as new students and on our subsequent experience working with students and alumni. We established several basic tenets. First, we believed, without a knowledge of the university's history, new students cannot fully appreciate the historical context for their own experience. Second, new students, again for the lack of information, cannot appreciate the extent to which students and alumni contribute broadly to the status of the university. Third, as a community, we have distanced ourselves from the observance of the rituals and traditions which can galvanize and strengthen our community. There were other observations, but these were primary in driving our planning as we faced our challenge.
We adopted 'Spartan Pride' as the primary theme. Spartan Pride, we agreed, is derived from many sources. It is derived, in part, from the delight we take in the success of our debate team, or the announcement of yet another MSU Rhodes, Truman, Marshall, or Churchill scholar, or the achievement of our student athletes, student musicians, and student actors. It is derived, in part, from an awareness of our Spartan history and the uniqueness of our university's mission, the world renown of our faculty, and the achievements of our illustrious alumni. It is derived, in part, from our awareness of the quality of each incoming class and our expectations for the realization of their potential as students and as alumni. Spartan Pride is renewed each time we sing the MSU Fight Song or MSU Shadows to celebrate a campus achievement. Essentially, we acquainted students with these sources of Spartan Pride.
We showed a five-minute unnarrated film of campus life scenes that the focus group students cited for their Spartan spirit content. Also, we recited an extensive list of names and areas of acclaim of alumni who in the past 10 years had outstanding achievement in government, business, media, literature, research, sports, and entertainment.
We were not above using some 'marketing' to reach our goals. To draw students from competing sessions, we mailed to each attending student an invitation which they could exchange at our session for a 'cool gift.' The cool gift was, in fact, a modest key chain, specially designed for this session, on which were printed words to the MSU Fight Song and MSU Shadows. With gift in hand, the students concluded the session by singing the two pieces of music dear to the heart of every Spartan.
Earlier this year I circulated among national alumni board members, alumni group leaders, and MSU administrators, a draft document which underscored the need to redefine alumni relations at Michigan State. The document enumerated the many ways alumni can contribute to the success of Michigan State. Key to alumni involvement and contribution in this scheme are the pride alumni feel for their alma mater and the appreciation they have for the different avenues for contributing to the University. Well, clearly the MSUAA orientation sessions initiated this summer began an important new thrust in this direction. Early alumni cultivation is critical for long-range alumni relations success.
Go Green.
