Campus organizations maintain ties with alumni

Ray Schmitz not only learned to play Northwestern's Alma Mater on his saxophone at band camp, but he also met his close group of college friends -- and his future wife.

As a member of Northwestern University Marching Band, Schmitz, Weinberg '89, found a social network that he says endured beyond graduation. At every home football game, Schmitz, his wife and their children sit with other NUMB alumni who have season tickets.

"Being involved in the band made us feel like we were part of the school in a real way," said Patty Dowd Schmitz, Medill '89, Ray's wife.

Students often make strong connections, whether in NUMB or other campus organizations, that go beyond graduation. Recently many student groups have taken the initiative to build connections with the alumni community.

"Smaller groups absolutely contribute to the sense of belonging," said sociology Prof. Gary Fine. "This enables students to feel bigger ties so Northwestern isn't so isolating."

Alumni Allegiance

When Jarrod Zimmerman starts to reflect on his NU experience, he thinks about the past three years' worth of late-night rehearsals putting together the Waa-Mu Show, a student theater revue.

"I'm not going to say I will remember Waa-Mu and not Northwestern," said Zimmerman, a Communication senior. "But NU to me is Waa-Mu."

Though students usually are in college for only four years, sometimes their connection to a particular student group lasts a lifetime.

Tiffany Westlie, a Waa-Mu alumna, said being in the musical theater program was a large part of her college life. This year, instead of traveling to Evanston for Homecoming with non-theatre friends, she is saving her airfare to attend Waa-Mu in spring.

"Even though I love football, I would rather come in for Waa-Mu because it is the thing that I feel most connected to as an alumna," Westlie said.

But Pete Friedmann has not missed a home football game since he graduated 25 years ago. He spent his four years at NU playing clarinet in the marching band and has served as the marching band's announcer for a quarter of a century. Friedmann, Communication '79, also co-founded "NUMBalums," an official network of marching band alumni.

Friedmann said he does this because he feels such a strong connection to both NUMB and NU.

"I enjoy giving something back to the marching band and university that's meant so much," he said. "I can help and make the band be the best band they can be."

ReachING out

Because alumni are drawn back by the activities they participated in as students, student groups are beginning to adapt their fund-raising and networking outreach programs to match this interest.

Sara Feinstein, alumni relations co-chairwoman of Dance Marathon, said her committee is expanding its alumni database this year and working more closely with the NU Alumni Association. They now have information about DM posted on the NU Alumni Association young alumni Web site and have e-mailed past presidents. Feinstein's committee also is planning a benefit for DM that targets alumni.

"It is going to be a large, fancy, fun benefit in the city that will attract more alumni than ever before," Feinstein said.

Other student groups have started reaching out to their alumni communities. A&O Productions added an alumni chairperson to its executive board this year and spent Homecoming weekend socializing with A&O alumni and trying to build connections.

The group also established a directory and plans to give all former executive board members a laminated pass so they can attend any A&O event. Peter Kahn, A&O's director of films, said the group is reaching out to alumni with the hope of creating networking opportunities for the organization.

"Sometimes students can't do things on a large scale," said Kahn, a Communication junior. "It's good to have people with connections in the industry to help us out."

Last year the Dolphin Show sent letters to 2,000 alumni inviting them back for the performance and asking for monetary contributions. Communication junior Rachael Scholten, producer of the 2005 Dolphin Show, said many alumni were enthusiastic to contribute to the show even if they weren't giving money to NU as a whole.

"We had alumni write back to us and say they didn't want to give money to the school but would give directly to student groups and other things they enjoyed during their time here," said Scholten, who has worked on the show since her freshman year.