Saddleback College Hopes to Steer Alumni Dollars Its Direction

Hungry for a slice of the alumni pie, Saddleback College in Mission Viejo plans to join the growing number of community colleges starting alumni associations to compete with four-year schools in the race for donor dollars.

The Saddleback College Alumni Assn., still in the planning stages, would link former graduates back to the school for campus activities, sports events and, perhaps most important, fund-raising efforts.

“They are the greatest untapped resource we have,” said David Placek, president of the Associated Student Government, which is spearheading the plan along with the Saddleback College Foundation.

At first, officials said, the focus would be to draw alums back to the college through news and events. But once the membership increases, the college would solicit former graduates for donations, said Susan Jones, the foundation’s director.

“Fund-raising is relationship building, and your best relationships should be from the alumni,” she said. “They are going to be your best resource if you run a capital campaign.”

Like Saddleback, increasing numbers of community colleges are realizing the importance of alumni connections and are creating associations for their former grads, said Norma Kent, director of communications for the American Assn. of Community Colleges in Washington, D.C.

Traditionally, four-year universities have bested community colleges in the grab for alumni dollars by keeping close tabs on former students. In contrast, two-year schools often lose track of their graduates when they transfer to four-year colleges or move out of the area, Kent said.

“Community colleges have not always seen the need for monitoring alums and having some mechanism for getting in touch,” she said. “They’re learning very quickly it’s something they need to do.”

Saddleback College is in just that position.

It does not have any records of its graduates, so it must rely on the alumni to take the initiative, Jones said. The college plans to set up an alumni association Web site to draw former graduates back into campus life.

It will be the first time Saddleback College has had an alumni association or tried to start one, Jones added.

The hesitancy to start an association in the past stemmed from three main obstacles that befall all two-year schools: few resources, a transient student population and a perception that community college alumni have more allegiance to the four-year university to which they transferred, Jones said.

Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa has run into all of those problems with its 15-year-old alumni association, foundation treasurer Nancy Timmons said.

Of the tens of thousands of students who have passed through the college’s doors, there are fewer than 400 dues-paying members in the alumni association, she said. Money from former grads made up roughly 2% of the $1.3 million in cash donations given to the school last year.

“We’re not a very active association,” Timmons said.

“With the two-year college students that go on to a four-year college, they have allegiance more with the four-year. And they’re a transitory group. We lose track if they don’t contact us.”

Saddleback College hopes to create a five- to 10-year plan during the 2000-01 school year to build a strong alumni group, Jones said. The college will try to engage former students with invitations to sports events, news of campus happenings and possibly volunteer opportunities.

Some students, however, doubted whether they would want to join a Saddleback College alumni association. Fernando Bernstein, 18, of San Clemente said the chances are slim that he would maintain contact with the two-year school.

“This is a junior college. You’re pretty much in and out,” he said. “Nobody wants to hang around.”