The University of Michigan

by Wilfred Byron Shaw

to invite the alumni to form a permanent society, to offer to graduates an inducement to revisit the seat of their youthful studies and to give new life to disinterested friendships found in student days.

Other universities soon followed with similar organizations. Harvard's Alumni Association was established in 1840; Bowdoin and Amhert came at about the same time, while the first alumni association at Columbia was founded in 1854. In the West an alumni association was started at Miami as early as 1832. The first years of these organizations were apparently a period of struggle, but the spirit that they represented grew, and eventually they made alumni influence everywhere effective to a greater or less degree, with the end not yet.

At Michigan, alumni organization has had a history similar to that in many other institutions. The University published a list of the first four classes as far back as 1848, but the alumni did not become a united body until 1860, fifteen years after the first class was graduated. This first association was characterized as "somewhat informal in its nature," but the usual statement of the object was forthcoming. According to the preamble of the constitution these were,—

the improvement of its members, the perpetuation of pleasant associations, the promotion of the interests of the University, and through that of the interests of higher education in general.

This Association was superseded in June, 1875, by an incorporated organization, the "Society of the Alumni of the University of Michigan," in which, notwithstanding its general name, membership was restricted to graduates of the collegiate department. A similar association of the Law School was formed in 1871 and before many years all the departments had similar bodies. But the interest taken was more or less perfunctory, and in 1897 a consolidation of all the departmental organizations was effected, resulting in the present Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, with ex-Regent Levi L. Barbour, '63, '65l, as its first President.

He was succeeded in June, 1899, by William E. Quinby, '58, of Detroit, who was followed in turn the next year by Regent W.J. Cocker, '69. Judge Victor H. Lane, '74e, '78l, Fletcher Professor of Law, was elected President in 1901, and so effectively has he served the interests of the alumni that he has been continued in that office for the past twenty years.

Two important steps were taken by the new Association immediately upon its consolidation in 1897. The first was the appointment of a General Secretary to devote his whole time to furthering the interests of the alumni organization. Ralph H. McAllister, a former member of the law class of '89, was first elected to this position, but was succeeded in January, 1898, by James H. Prentiss, '96, who was followed three years later by Shirley W. Smith, '97, at present Secretary of the University. The present Alumni Secretary, Wilfred B. Shaw, '04, was appointed in October, 1904. The purchase of the graduate journal, The Michigan Alumnus, established in 1894 by Alvick A. Pearson, '94, was another significant step. The Alumnus is one of the oldest graduate publications in the country, with the Yale Alumni Weekly, established in 1891, and the Harvard Graduates' Magazine, a quarterly, which appeared a year later, its only predecessors. Both of these journals are published by private corporations, as was the Alumnus at first. In thus creating an officer whose sole responsibility was to the alumni body and in maintaining an official alumni publication, Michigan became a pioneer among Western universities, and was only preceded in the East by Pennsylvania, whose alumni organization had established her Alumni Register and appointed an alumni secretary in 1895.

The plan of organization of the Alumni Association at Michigan is very simple. The entire responsibility for the affairs of the Association rests with a board of seven directors (originally but five), who elect the officers of the Association from among their own number. Two directors are ordinarily elected every year at the annual alumni meeting, held during the Commencement season, at which any alumnus is entitled to a vote. The income of the Association, except for a grant of $600 a year from the University for advertising, arises entirely from the Alumnus, which at present has a list of over 7,000 subscribers, who are considered as constituting the official membership of the Association. This membership is in two forms, annual members and some 1,500 life members, whose thirty-five dollar fees have resulted in an endowment fund at present amounting to over $38,000, the income from which is used for current expenses.

Since its establishment the Alumnus has grown steadily in influence, and may now be regarded, in some measure at least, as the official University publication. Limited as it is by the necessity of pleasing a constituency widely varied in age and interests, it nevertheless makes it possible for a large proportion of Michigan's graduates to maintain an effective and intelligent interest in the University.

But the work of the Association and its officers has not stopped with the Alumnus. The local alumni bodies and the class organizations form important links between the graduate and his alma mater, and the sentimental ties, as well as the altruistic spirit engendered by these associations have a vital significance for the individual graduate and for the University. Practically every class that leaves the University is organized for the purpose of perpetuating its college associations and many of the classes, particularly the earlier ones, have published extensive class-books and directories. Every effort is made to return to the University for reunions at stated periods, especially on the twenty-five and fifty year anniversaries. For some years also many classes have followed a plan which brings four classes that were in college together back for a reunion at the same time. The value of these annual home-comings has always been emphasized by the Alumni Association, and so successful has it been in making the reunion season interesting and stimulating that the graduates return in great numbers, sometimes in a carnival spirit, and sometimes, as during the recent war years, with a sense of consecration and devotion. Thus it was easy to pass from the gay fun of a burlesque commencement in Hill Auditorium, which was the feature of one reunion season, to the commemoration of Dr. Angell's life and services in 1916, and the great patriotic meetings of 1918 and 1919, which struck the deepest chords of alumni sentiment.