Informed, politically active alumni are some of the University of Michigan's most inspiring and effective advocates, Alumni Association Director Steve C. Grafton said at a meeting of the Saginaw and Bay City alumni/alumnae clubs this spring.
He encouraged the more than 95 alumni attending a luncheon at
the Saginaw Country Club to become active in the association's Alumni
Legislative Advocacy Program, which began in 1990 and recently was given a boost with the hiring of full-time staff member Karen Jordan.
"We want to bring alumni together in an effort to let legislators know that there are many people in their districts who care deeply about higher education and the University of Michigan," Grafton explained. The advocacy program is designed to bring the full force of alumni opinion to bear on the policies of state government toward higher education.
"You can have a dramatic impact on the institution. The University of
Michigan is your university as much as anyone else's," President James J. Duderstadt told attendees. "You're the ones supporting it. I hope you'll become active in the legislative advocacy program. It's a labor of
love for an institution we're all committed to."
Armed with background information about pending policy decisions,
alumni advocates may be asked to participate in phone calling or letter writing campaigns or to contact specific legislators whom
they know.
John V. Hereza '83 applauded the Association's efforts. "Advocacy is
very important. We need to have influence in the Legislature and in Lansing to assure continued funding," said Hereza, financial services consultant with First of America Brokerage Service Inc. in Saginaw.
Teresa Borowski '73 MA, a retired teacher and president of the
Saginaw Alumnae, said, "Sometimes you have to know what you can lose before you really get interested in saving what you have.
You think about your universities as non-changing from the time you were there. But if they don't change, they're not going to be around at all."
For more information about the Alumni Legislative Advocacy Program,
contact Jordan at the Alumni Association, 200 Fletcher St., Ann Arbor, MI
48109-1007; (313) 763-9742; (800) 847-4764; kjordan@umich.edu.
. . . June 1996