UMass Alumni Association Lags in Membership

Off and on, I've been a student at UMass for almost 25 years. As much as my life and the University have intertwined, I feel about as close to the school as I do to, say, the continent of North America. A lot of that is me. I left my undergraduate years in the late 1980's with a couple of friends I keep in touch with. I wasn't a tailgater or a club joiner and my academic departments had all the intimacy of the Holyoke Mall. In recent years, there have been some efforts to create communities within the UMass metropolis. Students can choose to live on floors with students of similar interests. One program houses large groups of freshmen.

Given the past, however, it comes as no surprise that participation in the UMass Alumni Association is pretty miniscule.

Alumni of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst network over business breakfasts, powwow at power lunches, and toast their college years at tailgate parties. But in startling numbers, they are steering clear of joining the school's alumni association.

Just 3 percent of graduates of the state university's flagship campus belong to the association. The paltry membership pales in comparison to that at most universities across the country and signals a sharp divide between UMass graduates and their alma mater's campaign to further involve them in university life.

The issue goes beyond attendance at football games and events at such places as the University of Massachusetts Club in downtown Boston, many graduates say. It carries implications for the university's ability to raise money, gain political clout, recruit students, and enhance UMass's image as it seeks to reach the upper echelon of public universities nationally.

"It's enormous in building the constituency of the university," said Mike DeMattia, a Norwood resident and past alumni association member who let his membership lapse three years ago. Low membership hurts the university's ability to promote its interests, he said.

Just 6,271 of the university's approximately 210,000 living graduates, about half of whom live in Massachusetts, are members of the association, which provides a range of perks and privileges from newsletters to discounts on plane tickets and hotel rooms. Public colleges typically charge an annual membership fee (at UMass, it's $40); private colleges tend not to charge fees and allow graduates to automatically become members.

The national average among 85 universities surveyed last year is a membership rate of 18 percent, but that figure is higher at many public state universities.

--Mb