If We Want to Fix Alumni Engagement, Start with the Faculty
Alumni leaders in higher education continue to bang the drum for change and explore new engagement models. Andy Shaindlin's recent article called for deeper alumni partnerships to advocate for higher ed more broadly. Meanwhile, the latest Deloitte report and related commentaries reflect a growing sense that the entire model needs modernization. My CMAC colleagues, Paul Clifford and Adam Compton, wrote thoughtful responses to the Deloitte report highlighting our critical moment. They highlight the need for better data, stronger value exchange, and rethinking how alumni stay connected throughout a lifetime to build a stronger donor community. These observations are important and well-intentioned.
But none of this clamoring will matter if we don’t first confront a more immediate issue. There's a fundamental disconnect between students and alumni that results from how institutions have structured the student experience, and that disconnect begins in the classroom.
Students Aren’t Asking for Mentors. They’re Asking for Experience.
The truth is, students aren’t asking for mentors. They are looking for internships, jobs, and real-world experience that will make their résumés stand out by the time they graduate. Administrators love to promote mentorship as a strategy, and alumni overwhelmingly want to help students. However, when students hear the word “mentor,” they often don’t see a direct link to the career outcomes they care about. They don’t yet understand that building relationships with alumni can be a path toward those outcomes.
Colleges and universities often fail to teach students how to access and activate the alumni network in a way that results in practical benefit. To bridge this gap, we must connect alumni engagement with the experiences students already value. That means micro-internships, project-based learning, and exposure to working professionals in their fields of interest.
Classroom-Based Alumni Engagement Must Become the Norm
Some faculty members are already doing this well. They invite alumni into class as guest speakers or involve them in capstone projects and industry critiques. Students in those environments graduate with more than academic knowledge. Some faculty prescribe visits to the career center for mock interviews or LinkedIn profile support. Those interactions might introduce narratives reflective of the importance of alumni networks, and students often leave college with tangible, résumé-caliber work experiences and real professional contacts.
However, these kinds of experiences only happen when a professor chooses to prioritize them. And that’s the problem. As long as faculty involvement remains optional, student access to alumni will remain uneven.
When students are required to engage with alumni as part of their coursework, the results are powerful. Students are more likely to take the experience seriously, because they have to, and recognize the value of professional networking. In partnership with alumni leaders and career teams, faculty must help create the structure, ensure follow-through, and guide students in preparing for and reflecting on those interactions. In short, faculty must play a central role if we want scalable, meaningful alumni engagement.
Academic Leadership Needs to Lead the Culture Shift
That’s where academic leadership must step in. Faculty members cannot be left to decide on their own whether or not to include alumni in the student learning experience. This needs to become a campus-wide expectation. The provost must establish clear guidelines that mandate departments design curriculum that includes experiential learning initiatives featuring alumni interactions. And if the provost won’t lead the way, the president should.
Merge Silos to Create a New Center of Excellence Around Volunteerism
As institutions look to the future, structural reform is as essential as curricular change. Many universities maintain separate offices for career services, community engagement, and alumni relations. But these areas share a common goal: preparing students for life after college by connecting them with people and opportunities beyond campus. Merging these units into a unified center of excellence could provide a more cohesive and effective model, and engage businesses holistically while creating more programs that facilitate alumni involvement. Such a center would ensure that students graduate with real-world experience while alumni are involved in volunteer roles that have a real impact.
This unit, combined or otherwise, must support faculty as they introduce alumni into the classroom.
Should this new center be part of advancement? Probably. It's alumni and friends of the university that have the opportunities. The key is clarity of mission and vision, along with top-down expectations for collaboration.
This is where advancement must evolve, and it's an institution-wide update of our approach to education. In our efforts to build and enhance donor pipelines, it's crucial to create meaningful opportunities for alumni to contribute to the student journey in ways that matter to both sides. And to do so at scale. The problem is that while we can all clamor for changes that result in enhanced donor communities, that journey must begin in the classroom, with faculty as facilitators, and continue through a coordinated structure that aligns with career preparation, community learning, and alumni engagement.
Students are asking for practical experience. Alumni are willing to help. The question is whether we’ll connect those two facts in a scalable and sustained way. For things to change, we must begin in the classroom, with faculty support and the leadership necessary to make alumni engagement a part of every student’s story.
Ryan Catherwood serves as Executive Vice President and Senior Consultant at Chris Marshall Advancement Consulting (CMAC), consulting partner with Washburn & McGoldrick LLC, and co-host of the Alumless and Alumless World web series and podcasts.
