Alumni networks help the past-pupils themselves. It also helps a society to improve its own institutions, and make these more impactful over time
It's that time of the year when alumni organisations are having their get-togethers in Goa. December is when many Goans return back to their home-state, so it makes sense to hold such events here at this time of the year.
For nearly the last three decades, my faith in alumni organisations has remained firm. The road to building a successful alumni network is long, rocky and hard to complete. It's filled with potholes, disappointments and misunderstandings. Yet, despite it all, it's worth it.
Sometimes in the mid-1990s, my alma mater (Britto at Mapusa) completed its golden jubilee. It had been set up in 1946. This event was observed in quite some earnest. Even a few years before that, attempts to build the alumni had got going.
But that was not the start. As a young boy in that school of the 1970s, I one day spied a number of elders climbing the stairs and trooping up to the school hall. They were not teachers, and definitely too old to be students. When one asked around, we were told that these were "old boys" of the school. "Boys" we will always remain.
Alumni are thought to be able to mentor studies in their area of expertise. They can contribute scholarships to deserving students. They can offer tips on best practices in a given field. Alumni can promote the institutional brand. They can also facilitate internships, career opportunities, and job placements for outgoing students. They can leverage their contacts to support admin, faculty and students.
Without doubt, alumni networks help the past-pupils themselves. It also helps a society to improve its own institutions, and make these more impactful over time. Given the way these benefit current students of an institution, it could be called a win-win-win-win equation.
A day after Chowgule College in Margao had its alumni network (not being connected, one only hears of it) the Goa University had its own. Goa U is a fairly young institution, under four decades old. This means its alumni are only slowly beginning to get noticed, and recognised.
As its chief guest, the varsity invited Prof Dr Ravi Fernandes. Or, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ravi Xavier Fernandes to use his full and formal designation. This can be translated to Doctor of Science. He is the Head of Physical Chemistry at the PTB in Germany.
In a short and pithy speech, he made a whole lot of points how an institution could relate to its alumni. Students reach high because of what their institutions gave them, he said. He pointed out how his own connections lasted; he would come back and give lectures and "try to build bridges" ever since his PhD.
"The journey doesn't end with your Master's degree. It's not that we need to call in the alumni. If the alumni feels the institution has given them something, they will come back," Fernandes posited.
He pointed to institutions like Yale, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Stanford that were drawing in millions in endowment funds per year. Fernandes asked: "I wonder why alumni put their own money into an institution?" The need to give back is what he pointed to. Besides, those offering donations get returns through that, support entrepreneurship. Some multinational firms have grown out from Stanford. There's a lot to give and take; it's not one-sided, as the chief guest stressed.
Alumni association can do a lot, not just funding. That too, but much more than that, he noted. CEOs in Silicon Valley pumping their money into IIT Madras. They have also been included in the advisory boards of this bodies. "It cannot be one-sided. Not just give money and come back next year," he reminded.
Fernandes said students who came back to "give back" are the "heroes"... "not me" he added. He pointed out that Goa too had some amazing students, and they have been at par to the German or American students.
Fernandes was a MSc student here, and credited his teachers in Goa for being "really an inspiration". "This institution has really given me a lot, I really feel obliged. It's a Biblical quote from Mathew, 'Freely you have received; freely give' (Matthew 10:8)," he cited.
Goa University has been an institution many of us here have depended on for our higher education. This columnist has been connected with it since almost its very birth -- in 1985 -- and sporadically after, in a total of four different stints.
In the 1980, the Goa University encouraged school-teachers to join its Master's programmes, especially in Arts and Humanities. Our classes (in the then Department of English) were held four days a week, from 3 to 6 pm. With a little juggling of shifts with my journalist colleagues, it was possible to attain 75% attendance, without staying absent from work. The job kept us going; we needed it.
Subsequently, classes became full-day in duration. This kept out many working people who might have liked to join as students, and improve their job prospects. There are pressures on institutions to "improve quality" and cope with UGC requirements, but certainly something could be done for those who can't afford to stop working while they continue learning. Another issue that many young Goans face today is the shortage of PhD guides, in quite a few disciplines. Competition to join a PhD is intense. In contrast, students in other States (especially in South India) have easier access into joining a PhD. This gives them an advantage. Some changes could be made to encourage more students to take up their research careers early and without waiting till they are too close to retirement. Offering emeritus professorships to recently retired professors could be one way out.
Trying to reach out to alumni might seem like a hopeless task. There is disinterest from most. But, this is a long-term job. The late associate professor Alito Sequeira (formerly Sociology) would narrate how the IIT-Bombay would try to contact their alumni. They would send out simple postcards to their last-known address, requesting anyone reading it to direct it to the past-pupil, if known.
Today we read about IITs getting grants in millions of dollars from Silicon Valley Indians. Partly, this is because of the fact that IITs are IITs. But, it's also due to all that work put in over long years! Give it a thought...
