UC Santa Cruz Review Summer/Fall 1995

Alumni News: Colleges benefit from alumni support

Declaring that the intellectual environment nurtured by the college system is "fundamental to the exceptional education alumni received" at UCSC, the Alumni Association Council has donated $20,000 to establish an Intellectual Life of the Colleges Fund. The fund is intended to encourage faculty to teach college-based one- to three-credit courses and to pay for course expenses.

While state instructional funds are restricted to specific uses, the Intellectual Life of the Colleges Fund will be spent on academically enriching activities at the discretion of each college's provost. Art supplies, films, videos, course-related receptions, and stipends for distinguished guest speakers are among the types of expenses the fund will defray.

Mary Doyle, then president of the Alumni Association Council, addressed the Academic Senate in May to communicate alumni support for the colleges. Doyle described an Alumni Council retreat in which "it became clear that the college system had been of inestimable value" to each council member. One member, who now works at a large UC campus, remarked how the university is grappling with how to promote interdisciplinary work. After describing her experience at Cowell, she concluded, "It's been done!"

The members of the Alumni Association have long funded college-based activities. Thirty percent of each association member's annual dues is deposited into a fund for his or her college. Last year, a seminar at Crown, college nights at Cowell, and a new sound system at Stevenson were paid for with these funds. The new Intellectual Life of the Colleges Fund will bring an added dimension to alumni support for the colleges.