Alumni Oration

"Alumni Dinner – Saturday, May 19, 1973 Remarks By J.M. Anderson 'The Role of the Modern Alumni'" (19 May 1973): 1-8. (UA Case 67a, Box 2)

Mr. Chairman, Fellow Headtable Guests, and U.N.B. graduates and their spouses,

I would like to begin by setting the record straight by admitting that I belong in the "spouses" category, since like all of those in this group, with the exception of the cases where inbreeding has taken place, I am not a U.N.B. graduate, I only work here.

I have another confession to make. Shortly after I arrived on March 1, I made several blunders. But probably none was more serious than my misunderstanding of the relation of the U.N.B. Associated Alumni and Associated Alumnae organizations to the university. In looking over the organizational chart I was delighted to see that there was a Director of Alumni Affairs, Arthur Doyle, marvellous!! Hard on the heels of this discovery came the good news that your contributions to the 1972 campaigns seemed to be heading for a record...Which they did, reaching $77,600 by March, representing a 60% increase in donations and a 43% increase in the number of donors, this was even more marvellous!!

Now.... how to spend the money?? I thought hard and long about this. No end of possibilities occurred to me. What did not occur to me was the question of implementation. After all, Mr. Doyle, in his box below mine in the organizational chart, ultimately reported directly to me. He would follow my instructions. By now, I have no doubt many of you have begun to realize wherein I was wandering astray. I was like the new man the city hired to collect the dimes from the parking meters. "Here is a master key" said the city manager. "Go around and collect all the coin boxes, get all the money." The new collector was gone two weeks. He walked into the office and said "Can I have another key? I lost the one you gave me." "Sure" said the city manager. "But say, where have you been? Last Friday the cashier stayed here till seven o'clock in the evening to give you your wages." "Wages?" said the new collector, "Do I get wages too?"

Well, like the new collector, no one ever told me that the money the Alumni raised was not mine to spend,... That it belonged to the two Alumni Associations in proportion to the amount each had raised.

It turns out, however, that my blunder was perhaps more imagined than real.... Because I was soon to learn that in fact, that is to say in practice, the Alumni Associations work very closely with the administration. There is considerable consultation between your executives, mostly channelled through Mr. Doyle's office, and the university before final recommendations are send to your respective alumni councils for approval. As a consequence, the way in which your funds are spent is very much in keeping with the aims and objectives of the university.

There is no question therefore, that U.N.B.'s two Alumni Associations play a vital role in the university. I think what pleases me even more, though, is the knowledge that their role is an integral one, meshing completely with the operation of the university as a whole. Under the circumstances, therefore, the title of my remarks this evening "The Role of the Modern Alumni" is of considerable direct interest to me.

Well.... what is your role? That is, of course, for you to decide. But I have some thoughts that you might find useful.

I sense that Alumni Associations in general are facing an identity crisis. Somehow the old rules don't seem to have the same relevance. If it is any comfort to you..."Welcome aboard." Universities are having their identity problems too. I realize that nothing is more tiresome than to have to listen to somebody else's problems. But I am going to tell you some of ours, one in particular (dealing with how we are financed), because what will emerge is an exciting new role for alumni organizations.

We're in financial trouble. I wonder how many presidents over the years have uttered that dire pronouncement. But this time it is different. When I say "we" I don't mean just U.N.B., I mean universities in general.

We find ourself in our present predicament because of two fundamental, and interrelated, facts. One is the shortfall in students experienced by universities across Canada last year. For example, at U.N.B. last fall we were expecting, and therefore budgeting for, an increase in three hundred students. In reality we had a decrease of two hundred students, which for accounting purposes meant a drop of five hundred. In fees alone that represented $300,000 deficit. I must emphasize here that all of us in the university business recognize that the real problem is not the loss in revenue. It was why the expected freshmen did not turn up, and so many of the sophomores and juniors did not return. Perhaps universities are not measuring up to students needs. If so, that to me is as serious a problem as any university can have. All universities are looking closely at their programs these days to see if they need modernizing. It is clear, however, that there will be no instant solutions to enrollment problems.

The second, and the really fundamental, reason why we are in money trouble, is I think amenable to rapid solution. The reason is "formula financing"; and it is this that I think offers new hope to alumni.

You should be aware that formula financing (the system whereby operating funds are allocated to universities by government on a per student basis, the actual amount depending upon several factors such as course enrolled in, whether graduate or undergraduate, etc) is a unique phenomenon. Nothing like it has happened before in the
approximate 800 year history of universities in the western world. Now it is with us to stay, it was introduced in response to the very real need to rationalize the expenditure of public funds on our public universities and colleges. It was said, and it is true, that "universities are spending institutions.... and there is no upper limit, within reason, to what they can usefully spend on improved teaching, more extensive research and the facilities which these functions involve". This is another way of saying that you cannot base educational planning on cost/benefit analyses. Formula financing was government's answer.

What went wrong? For the first few years, nothing. Disaster struck only when the unexpected happened… When the students did not show up. The trouble was that the formulae had all been based on continued growth of universities, no one had thought to build the proper checks into the formulae to take care of a no-growth situation, it is worth noting that universities seem to be the first major "industries" to experience limits to economic growth, an event which many prominent individuals around the world, such as the members of the Club of Rome, claim must happen to all industries, on a global scale, if man is to survive. Those of us in the knowledge industry, that is the university, can now better appreciate the concern that economists have expressed on the effect of a no-growth economy on private enterprise. The effect was certainly disasterous on the university. But I have already made it clear that universities are different than big business, and because of this difference, there should be no difficulty whatever in rapidly adjusting the formulae to the realities of student enrollment. This is happening across Canada now. Already the prospects for 1974-75 (the soonest that remedial action can be taken for universities in New Brunswick) appear brighter.

I have digressed.... but for a purpose. I wanted you to understand the nature of formula financing, because you will recall I indicated that it has special significance to alumni organizations. Now.... to make my point.

Formula financing will put us, for the first time, more or less on equal financial footing for our basic operating costs with our sister institutions across Canada. And therein lies the challenge...For the university as well as for the alumni. We can now plan realistically to develop excellence in those areas that we choose; and expect realistically to achieve it. We'll all be starting from the same base. Whether or not we excel in what we do will, I think, depend to a large extent upon our ability to obtain external support.

Often it does not require much added support to tip the balance so that the ordinary program becomes the exceptional one. Your support of the Urban Studies Programme at U.N.B.S.J. is a perfect example of the kind of extra support that can tip the balance in favour of excellence.

I think we will find that one of the most unexpected consequences of. formula financing will be to make the alumni one of the key factors in determining those areas where universities will develop special competence and excellence, this is not, of course, an entirely new rule for alumni. Excellence in inter-collegiate athletics has long been an alumni objective on many campuses. Now formula financing gives alumni an opportunity to help the university put together a winning team on the academic playing field.

Of course, money is not everything. I was at Carleton University, in its early days, when the alumni were so young they were all still paying off their undergraduate debts. President Davidson Dunton used to liken the fund raising capability of his small band of recent graduates to the story told of Groucho Marx who was reputed to have
said "When I first came to this country I didn't have a nickel in my pocket. Now I have a nickel." But the Carleton graduates were effective because they were organized and did much in the community to support their alma mater. Just by existing, therefore, U.N.B. alumni organizations in various communities in New Brunswick, and other provinces in Canada, can assist U.N.B. in a variety of ways… All depending upon organization, and of course hard work. I think for example of the possibility of alumni helping graduates in identifying job opportunities, becoming involved in public relations, high school liaison, and assisting U.N.B. in major fund raising campaigns (when we get around to this again), by helping U.N.B. obtaining contributions from large corporations.

The alumni can also assist the university in another very important way. I refer to the Alumni Appointees (of which U.N.B. has three) to the board of governors. They bring points of view to our deliberations which could only come from former students. As such their input is invaluable. Through board membership the alumni therefore plays a very important role in policy making,

In summary then, I see the alumni playing three roles; assisting the university achieve excellence in special programmes, assisting the university in various ways simply by being organized; and providing a voice on the board of governors. All are important.... indeed so much so that the importance to ascribe to the contribution that each may bring to the operation of the university may depend upon one's point of view. It is, in conclusion, not unlike the story told about the announcements of the chemistry professor's new book, and his wife's new baby, which appeared almost simultaneously, the professor, when he was congratulated by a friend upon "that proud event in your family'', naturally thought of that achievement which had cost him the greater effort and modestly replied: "Well, I could not have done it without the help of two graduate students."