UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association
Los Angeles Chapter

Alumni Making a Difference at UC Santa Cruz

Roz Helfand and Fran Zandonella met on December 10, 2000. They developed a working list of possible ways the local chapter can play a more influential role in the future of UCSC. The topics they discussed are:

1. Start investigating and comparing the role of alumni/Alumni Associations of other universities. What do they do? What kind of influence do they have? We need to look at older, larger universities to see what roles they play. We need to find out what worked for them and what did not work. We can start by looking at web pages of other Alumni Associations.
2. Find more ways to connect directly with current UCSC students besides the CAN (Career Action Network).
3. Promote the CAN. We need to become more involved in this network. It will benefit all of us.
4. Encourage alumni to get more involved in lobbying events (whether it be lobbying Regents, state government, federal government, or whatnot.)
5. Monitor UC Regent decisions more closely. We need to know who the Regents are.
6. Keep track of the total amount of revenue UCSC takes in from Alumni donations... and exactly where the revenue is going. This can be done by obtaining a copy of the annual report.
7. Contact the Student Union Assembly. Establish a line of communication between alumni and students by having an alumni rep go to an SUA meeting/s and/or by means of a SUA representative to the Alumni Association, LA Chapter. Through this connection, we could also establish communication with College Councils.
8. Take a more positive role in UCSC affairs. Show how alumni can promote the university by (for example) becoming a stronger donating/fundraising force, or helping to establish a new school of study (like a business school). We want to play a strong role. We could pick a theme that is important to us locally and have all local chapter members donate money specifically for that cause. The University tends to listen to money, so this might be a way of obtaining a stronger role.
9. Start a discussion amongst alumni about preserving the individual college communities at UCSC. Issues of concern are development, overcrowding, and preservation of individual college character (for example dancing naked in the first rain of the year at Porter.)
10. Find out how many former UCSC Student Councils officers are living in the LA area. The Alumni Directory is a possible source of this information or possibly Allison.
11. Suggested earlier: Create a forum for this type of discussion and alumni addressing the future of UCSC on the internet. Create a possible mailing list. At the moment the Alumni Association has not done this, though it has been requested. We are looking at the possibility of hosting one ourselves. Claude has mentioned the possibility of him hosting the list.
12. The Alumni Association needs a tech person in their office to assist the various chapters.

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