Alumni association

University of Florida Alumni Association

The Alumni Visitor Center of California State University, Monterey Bay.

An alumni association is an association of graduates (alumni) or, more broadly, of former students. In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), fraternities, and sororities often form groups with alumni from the same organisation. These associations often organise social events, publish newsletters or magazines, and raise funds for the organisation. Many provide a variety of benefits and services that help alumni maintain connections to their educational institution and fellow graduates. In the US, most associations do not require its members to be an alumnus of a university to enjoy membership and privileges.

Additionally, such groups often support new alumni, and provide a forum to form new friendships and business relationships with people of similar background.

Alumni associations are mainly organised around universities or departments of universities, but may also be organised among students that studied in a certain country. In the past, they were often considered to be the university's or school's old boy society (or old boys network). Today, alumni associations involve graduates of all age groups and demographics.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, membership of an alumni association often goes without saying. In continental Europe, alumni associations are getting more and more popular as universities receive less money from governments and depend more on networking within civil society for funding.

Alumni associations are often organised into chapters by city, region, or country.

Corporate alumni

Alumni associations can also include associations of former employees of a business. An alumnus of a company is a person who was formerly employed by it. These associations are growing in popularity and becoming an important part of a personal business network.^[1]

List of Alumni associations

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

• University of Washington Alumni Association
• University of Kentucky
• Alumni Association of RV College of Engineering, Bangalore, India
• Auburn Alumni Association
• California Institute of Technology Alumni Association
• Cal Poly Pomona Alumni Association
• Cornell Black Alumni Association, Inc.
• College of Charleston Alumni Association
• University of Florida Alumni Association
• Georgia Tech Alumni Association
• University of Illinois Alumni Association
• Indiana Wesleyan University Alumni Association
• Michigan State University Alumni Association
• Purdue Engineering Alumni Association
• Stanford University Alumni Association
• University of Saskatchewan Alumni Association
• Texas Exes, more formally The Ex-Students' Association of The University of Texas (at Austin)
• The Association of Former Students (Texas A&M University)
• Texas Tech Alumni Association
• Bruin Alumni Association (UCLA—not affiliated with the school or its official alumni association)
• UCSD Alumni Association
• University of Washington Alumni Association
• Association des Centraliens de Lyon
• Grenoble INP Alumni
• The Warsash Association (ex-Cadets & students of The Warsash Maritime Academy, originally The School of Navigation.)
• SABIS school network (http://www.sabis.com/)
• Alumni Association of Benadir University
• NTU Alumni Association
• ISTOM Alumni
• Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management Alumni
• Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni Association
• OCEANS Network

See also

Association of Representatives of Old Pupils Societies in the UK

References

1. ^ "Corporate, Military, and Government Alumni Groups (250+)". 2008-06-01. http://www.job-hunt.org/employer_alumni_networking.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-08.