University Times

Pitt's Alumni Association had no dues-paying members in 1990. By the year 2000, the association boasted 12,500 annual dues-paying members, 230 life members and a gleaming new alumni center in the Masonic Temple.

In 1992, the Pitt Alumni Association awarded four student scholarships. Last year, it awarded 81.

The association established its student recruitment program in 1992. Last year, 887 alumni volunteered to recruit students to Pitt, through activities coordinated with the University's Admissions office.

Alumni association president Samuel Zacharias reported those and other accomplishments to Pitt's Board of Trustees on Feb. 22, to show how far the association has come in the last decade.

But Pitt still has far to go to match average achievements among the nation's 80 largest alumni associations, as measured by the Council of Alumni Association Executives (CAAE), Zacharias said.

Pitt had 185,000 addressable alumni as of June 2000, the same as the CAAE average. "But that's where the comparisons end," Zacharias said.

For example, the average CAAE association finished last year $77,000 in the black while the Pitt Alumni Association broke even.

The Pitt association's $2.4 million endowment (up from $0 in 1990) generated $120,000 for scholarships and other programs. The average CAAE alumni association endowment was $7.9 million and generated $507,000.

The average CAAE association had 16,500 annual dues-paying members (compared with Pitt's 12,500) and 16,600 life members (compared with Pitt's 230, which had increased to 476 by January 2001).

The association's goals in the next several years include dramatically increasing the number of life members, using new technology to enhance communication among Pitt's 200,000 alumni worldwide, and involving more alumni in Pitt governmental lobbying, especially at the state level.

Alumni Relations employs nine professional and five support staff, compared with CAAE averages of 14 and 10, respectively. "It clearly will take additional staff and commitment to achieve some of the numbers and comparisons we hope to catch up to," Zacharias said.

— Bruce Steele