November 22, 1999
Search begins for 'missing' UC alumni
By Mary Spletter
UC Office of the President
The University of California is looking high and low for some of its 238,000 "lost"
alumni.
"Our alumni are known for their independence, so I'm not surprised that they
haven't left forwarding addresses. But they also are known for their commitment and
support of social values, and the fact is that we need them now," explained
James Stofan, director of alumni affairs for the University of California system.
Tracking UC graduates is complicated because students attend UC campuses from various
regions of the state, the country and the world.
Finding the lost alumni could make a major difference in membership and annual giving
income to the university. Records compiled in mid-1998 showed that the University
of California had no forwarding address for 237,827 of its more than one million
alumni.
Stofan has hired a firm to help track down the missing alumni so that the UC graduates
can be added to an all-UC database update project. "This amount of additional
involvement could be critical as the university prepares to handle the expected 40
percent increase in students by the year 2010," he said.
Stofan's office is coordinating the project in collaboration with UC's nine campus
alumni associations. Individual campuses will determine alumni activities and special
projects on their respective campuses.
If you are a "lost" UC graduate and want to reconnect with your campus,
please call (510) 987-9161 or e-mail your name and address to www.ucalumni.net.
Stofan explained that the Executive Marketing Services of Naperville, Il., has been
selected to help find the alumni. A company representative estimates that it will
take three to four weeks at each campus to find the UC graduates with searches running
simultaneously. The goal is to have the addresses of the lost alumni in the database
by early 2000.
