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Spring 2002

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UMASS GATHERINGS:Rallying the troops
Times are perilous, say advocacy staff: Please Act Now

by Mary Carey




	photo by Ben Barnhart

IF THERE'S A SILVER LINING to the dark fiscal cloud hanging over UMass, it could be that it’s raised awareness of the campus’s sometimes precarious presence in the state, says Dick Conner ’81, ’95G, the campus’s assistant vice chancellor for government and community relations.

In the wake of state budget cuts of a magnitude UMass hasn’t seen for a decade – possibly ever – Chancellor Marcellette Williams has charged Conner and advocacy programs coordinator Cheryl Dukes, among others, with rallying alumni and friends to lobby the state legislature on the university’s behalf.

Conner and Dukes have mounted a multi-theater campaign, dubbed “Act Now,” with an over-arching goal of raising UMass’s statewide profile above what Dukes calls “stealth” mode.

“It’s really important to realize how big and broad UMass is across the commonwealth,” Dukes said this spring. “You think about the School of Education. We’re educating teachers and administrators. There’s the College of Engineering, the School of Management. We probably have, in every single city and town in the state, someone in municipal administration who graduated from UMass. We’re everywhere.”

If all goes according to plan, newly-bolstered cadres of alumni, friends, and other supporters will be engaged, either individually or in groups, to contact legislators in their districts, form ongoing relationships, and press home UMass’s contributions to the greater good. The hoped-for result is a legislature less likely to forget UMass come budget-writing time.
It will be an ongoing effort. Conner warns that supporters shouldn’t set too-high expectations for next year’s budget, which is expected to be stretched even thinner than the current one. “Alumni and others should not get discouraged if we’re cut again in the short term,” said Conner. “UMass supporters need to keep promoting the value of the university in their communities to change the culture toward public higher education in Massachusetts.”

“We want to engage people because of the risk and the threat,” Conner said. “But when they speak to their legislators, the most important thing is that they speak from their hearts about what the university means to them, and beyond that to emphasize the value of the university to the commonwealth.”

AMONG THE FACTS THAT LEGISLATORS need to be reminded of, in Conner’s estimation, is that some 80 percent of UMass graduates stay in the state and contribute to its well-being. By contrast, almost 80 percent of the state’s private college students leave.

State Representative Stephen Kulik ’01, Worthington Democrat, UMass alum, and ardent advocate for the university in the legislature, calls the estimated 160,000 alumni of the UMass system who reside in the commonwealth “a huge, untapped lobbying and advocacy resource.

“They’re scattered all over Massachusetts and have the opportunity to deal directly with the senators and representatives in their home districts,” Kulik said. “We’re investing in our own future when we invest in UMass, and the alumni, along with the parents and the students need to tell that story to elected officials more effectively.”

Faculty, administrators and students are out there lobbying already, Kulik said. “But it’s the parents and alumni who I think could be the most important advocates for the university, and they don’t do enough yet.”

Which is not to say that some alumni aren’t already actively engaged. For example, Todd Lever ’89, ’95G, who traces his penchant for community involvement back to his days as a student senator at UMass, recently joined other Springfield area alumni in hosting a legislative luncheon that attracted state reps Cheryl Rivera, Michael Kane, Steve Buoniconti, Chris Asselin, and Ben Swann ’77G.

Lever says alumni who give to the university also receive, because advocacy involves networking: “I can give to UMass at the same time I’m helping my own career,” he says. A “great tool” Lever discovered only this winter is the online directory sponsored by the alumni office. “Some alumni have their home addresses listed, so you can find people in your neck of the woods.”
Associate director of alumni relations Jennifer Arsenault ’99G said her department is actively encouraging alumni to join the more than 12,000 who now belong to the Alumni Association, and to think about participating in one of the 40 regional alumni clubs. The association has initiated an electronic newsletter, @UMass, which goes out to 30,000 alumni and friends on the first Wednesday of every month. Providing information about volunteer opportunities and news from campus, including budget information, @UMass is “if nothing else, a really good source to keep yourself informed about what is happening,” Arsenault said.

ADMINSTRATORS IN THESE UMASS OFFICES are developing a number of focal points for rallying more alumni and friends like Todd Lever. They’re urging people who want to get involved to a new website, www.umass.edu/actnow . They’re coordinating efforts with backers of the faculty’s “Save UMass” initiative (see story, page 10) and with other UMass colleagues, for example, in the library system. Dukes identifies libraries as one of the great “stealth benefits” of the public sector in Massachusetts, and libraries were prominent among sites for the “UMass Day” being planned for a number of locations statewide on April 27, along with a “UMass Spirit Day” on April 26, when UMass partisans statewide were urged to show their maroon colors. (See story, page 12.) The Alumni Association, meanwhile, was making plans for its impressive April 2 Distinguished Alumni Awards event in Boston.

The Distinguished Alumni Awards, which for several years running have packed members and friends into the Great Hall of the Statehouse – including House Speaker Thomas Finneran and Senate President Thomas Birmingham in recent years – helps raise the university’s profile in a personal and striking way, said Susan Mattei ’84G, assistant vice chancelor for alumni relations at UMass Amherst.

“Alumni can say things about the university that those of us who work here cannot,” Mattei said. “When someone who received a quality education and is now out there putting that education to work conveys the message that ‘I’m a product of UMass; it helped me, and it should continue to be available to others’ – it’s just so much stronger.”

Every one of these UMass administrative staff stressed their eagerness to help the campus’s alumni and friends make themselves heard. Dukes said her department will gladly speak to groups about how to advocate effectively with legislators: “If you collect the people, we will come,” she said.
Dukes and Conner have also recorded radio spots, and were planning a direct mailing, in addition to getting this succinct message into as many of the university’s dozens of publications as possible:

“These are perilous times for your university. The UMass budget has been cut twice this year and declining state revenues could further jeopardize the university. Your voice in support of UMass is critical. Join UMass alumni, parents, and friends in an all-out effort of support and advocacy. Please Act Now!”

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