Publisher's Synopsis
FORE WORD. The collecting of material for this book was begun nearly two years ago by two secretaries who felt that there was need of such a publication. When the Association of Alumni ecreties met at San Francisco, in the summer of 1915, it was discovered that others also had reached the conclusion that there was need for such a manual. The question was taken up at that meeting and it was decided that the Association should undertake to publish such a book. A committee was appointed to gather material and put it into shape for the printer. In compiling this book the committee has endeavored to state general principles which a limited experience has shown to be well founded, and to arrange all material obtainable in form to be instantly available for the use of any one, interested in alumni problems and, alumni work.. . The committee realizes how inadequate such a book must necessarily be, but hopes that it may serve a useful purpose and may also serve as a basis for a fuller and more adequate publication along similar lines in later years. Alumni organization in, American colleges and universities is a comparatively recent development. Though the graduates of the earlier American colleges had a certain influence on the policies and growth of their alrnarnater, it is only within the last twenty-five years that these organizations have become a factor of any great importance. In fact, this development is, so recent that its significance is not sufficiently realized, least of all perhaps by the alumni themselves. When it is considered how vitalIy alumni influence enters into the life of our colIeges and universities at the present time, the smalI space devoted to these organizations in most university histories and works on higher education in America is significant. It suggests at least just how much of a departure from those long educational precedents which lie behind our college system, is this habit of graduates to organize for fellowship and for the good of their respective institutions. The desire to perpetuate college friendships and to revive memories of college days was undoubtedly the underlying cause which first brought the, aIumni together in these or- ganizations, and not a few associations have progressed no further in their activities. Gradually, however, the alumni organization came to play a more important part in the development of the college. Nothing was more natural than for the authorities to look to the successful alumni when adding to the membership of its governing board, and just as naturally the organization of the alumni, either directly or in- directly, and almost invariably after a struggle with established customs, furnished the machinery for making the selection. The college authorities also came to recognize other possibilities in the alumni associations use was made of them in securing financial assistance in the form of endowrneks and alurnni funds, new buiIdings and equipment. Their aid was also invoked in efforts to increase the attendance. Hand Book of Alumni Work Thus it has come about that while the alumni have come to take an ever increasingly important part in the life of the institution, the chief direction of such activity has come from the ...
