NED University
& Alumni Giving
By Riaz Haq
Alumni of US schools
play a significant role in the lives of their alma
maters. There are well-established traditions and
mechanisms in place for alumni giving their time,
money, and various resources to enhance the academic
life and extra-curricular activities of almost all
schools in the US. Even public universities such
as University of California system boast of their
alumni support as a source of funding and a way
to attract the best faculty, significant research
grants from industry and government, and higher
rankings by various ranking bodies including US
News & World Report. As a rule, the older campuses
of UC system are ranked higher than the newer ones
based mostly on the size of the alumni and their
track record. In recent years, the IIT system, established
in the 1950s in our neighboring India, has taken
a leaf from this US tradition and resulted in a
dramatic boost in their international reputation
and brand recognition through the work of their
alumni in the US and elsewhere. NEDUET is a 76 year
old institution of higher learning in Karachi, Pakistan
with a sizable and highly accomplished alumni population
in Pakistan, US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Yet, NEDUET has not derived the benefits from their
vast and wealthy alumni body that are quite common
and expected in the US universities as well as IITs
in India. This article is written to propose how
this situation can be rectified.
Effective Alumni Giving:
The most effective way of alumni giving requires
a close partnership of the alumni organization with
an on-campus alumni center working with the administration,
faculty and staff of the university. The partnership
requires a voluntary agreement to work together
that is clearly written, accepted and faithfully
implemented by both sides. It clearly spells out
the role played by the alumni association in various
programs such as arranging funding of specific ideas,
industry projects and research grants, establishing
endowment chairs, the level of oversight by the
alumni and the university etc. As far as I know,
none of this is in place right now. So the first
step is to have alumni organization discuss and
agree on this framework with the university. This
will require a frank discussion and persuasion based
on the actual past experience at NED and other universities
in Pakistan and elsewhere.
Establishing Alumni Center:
Once the basic framework is agreed, an alumni center
needs to be established and a list of possible program
and projects can be reviewed which are then jointly
agreed and pursued by the alumni and faculty/staff.
Path Ahead:
If the past experience of various alumni efforts
is any guide, the path forward is not going to be
simple, short and easy. The reasons vary from the
lack of a formal structure in place for alumni role
to a degree of skepticism and mistrust on both sides.
Part of the problem has been that the past failed
efforts seem to have been piecemeal, ad-hoc and,
in some instances, rather haphazard. Attempting
to push pet projects by alumni on the university
without a clear understanding of the needs and the
plans of the university has not worked. What is
needed is a mutual understanding on a shared vision
of the future, the needs of the university, the
desires of the alumni and trust-building by executing
a few agreed projects leading to shared success.
This will require patience, determination, thoughtfulness
and an atmosphere free of acrimony. We must be prepared
for the long haul to make it work. NED Convention
2007 can be a platform to help build consensus among
a core group of generous, dedicated alumni prepared
to embark on this journey.
About the Author:
Riaz Haq is the President of the NED Alumni Association
of Silicon Valley and Chairman of the Convention
2007 steering committee. Riaz has more than 25 years
experience in the hi-tech industry. Riaz has been
on the faculties of Rutgers University and NED Engineering
University. He has cofounded two high-tech startups,
Cautella, Inc. and DynArray Corp and managed multi-million
dollar P&Ls. Riaz is a pioneer of the PC and
mobile businesses and he has held senior management
positions in hardware and software development of
Intel’s microprocessor product line from 8086
to Pentium processors. Riaz's experience includes
senior roles in marketing, engineering and business
management. Riaz was recognized as “Person
of the Year” by PC Magazine for his outstanding
contribution to 80386 program. Riaz earned a MS
degree in Electrical engineering from the New Jersey
Institute of Technology.
Riaz Haq has a blog at http://riazhaq.blogspot.com
For information about NED Alumni Convention 2007,
please visit: http://convention2007.nedians.org
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