Part 7: What Can Former Students Do?

How can former students help to ensure that Texas A&M maintains and even improves upon on our success and respected reputation?

Transcript

Kathryn Greenwade ’88, Vice President, The Association of Former Students: On our next question, I’d like to ask Mr. Bermudez to take the lead on this question. You referenced former students and their interest in this topic, and certainly former students care deeply about Texas A&M and want to see Texas A&M succeed. How can former students help to ensure that Texas A&M maintains and even improves upon on our success and respected reputation?


Jorge Bermudez ’73, 2011 Chair of the Board, The Association of Former Students: Aggies are passionate. Former students are passionate. And I would say that the best—the best thing a former student could do, and the Aggie Network, is to inform itself. These are challenging times for the university. These are challenging times for our state. Be informed. Be informed about what are the real issues that are being discussed and that are maybe challenges that the university is trying to deal with. Be informed and be knowledgeable of the type of leadership that the university and the system has. Fall back on the core values that the university stands for and remember what those core values mean to all Aggies.

I believe that if we have a well-informed Aggie Network, they will be able to sift through also what are rumors that are discussed, what are the real facts, where are areas of concern. That to me is one of the best things at this point in time that the former students can do. I don’t want to forget also they should and continue to support the university, whether it’s financially, through their giving of their time, through mentoring students. Continue to be a part of what Texas A&M is. We’re all where we are in life because of what Texas A&M allowed us to obtain here—a good education that allowed us to walk away and do something with our lives that wouldn’t have been possible without that. I think the former students need to give back and continue to give back, and they’re very generous; in times of very difficult economic times, the former students have been extremely generous with their time and financial resources. So become more informed and continue to hold the dear core values that we have. And one of them—respect. Respect. You have to trust in the university and these are difficult times, but we’ll see it through and we will see it through with the support of the Aggie Network.


Dr. R. Bowen Loftin ’71, President, Texas A&M University: Wherever I go, Kathryn, I have chances to talk to leaders of industry, government who have employed our graduates. And that’s where you begin to realize where the Aggie brand value comes from. There are many things going on. Membership in AAU, for example, affects brand from a faculty perspective but that’s not a widely known thing to most people. The fact that our graduates are extraordinarily effective at what they do after graduation is why our degree means a lot today. So the former students out there, 300,000 or so living out there today, have made a mark, a good mark, and we benefit from that. Every graduate today benefits from the graduate that came before them in terms of the image that that person created about this university.

And it’s an extraordinary thing to see the Aggie Network in action. I have occasion to go to the Reveille Club, for example, in Houston from time to time and talk to them and to watch the networking going on there. They help young graduates get jobs; even those in midcareer make transitions and so on. So the Aggie Network’s a very effective thing, but it’s effective primarily because our graduates have established a really high bar of excellence in what they’ve done—whether they’re a lawyer, a physician, a person in business, a military officer, a government official—they have established a high bar for performance. And people then learn over knowing them that they’re graduates of this university and that’s a connection people make then. And so one of the great values of being here is inheriting the value created by former students. And never forget that. And I agree with Jorge—information’s important. Rumors fly. It’s very important for people to learn the truth about anything that might be of interest to them, and I think The Association does a good job through its various publications, both electronic and print, to be able to get out to its membership the truth, and I appreciate that. But it takes the other person then to really read that or listen to that or see that to be able to benefit from it, and so I think people need to spend the time to be informed; that’s important. And again, I’m extraordinarily appreciative for all the giving back that goes on at Texas A&M.

No organization has 100 percent. We understand that and we can certainly improve even here at Texas A&M the number of individuals who do give back both in terms of time and financial resources. But we do a good job right now; we really appreciate it. It makes a difference at Texas A&M, a really fine difference, what this Association does for the university. And individual donors throughout the world give back in recognition of the value they receive and in love and passion for this great university.


Dr. Richard Box ’61, Chairman, The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents: I agree with what Bowen says. It’s a great honor to be involved with this organization and with all the great things that The Association and the alums of Texas A&M do. And yes, they are very, very passionate and sometimes the decisions we make at this level are not always well received, but we try to do the best we can with the knowledge that we have and try to make the best, the right decision for Texas A&M. But having said that, the wonderful traditions that we have, the wonderful alum association here is totally unique in the United States and it’s certainly a great honor to be part of it.


Dr. Michael Benedik, Speaker, Texas A&M Faculty Senate: I think, speaking for the faculty, we really appreciate what the AFS does. Y’all support our ability to develop programs, you support teaching awards, you support student awards, and that’s fabulous. We really love it. We’d love it twice as much if it was twice as big but you know...

I want to throw out one other thing: I think if people sort of stay educated, stay aware of the issues, that’s really good, and another thing that would be really wonderful is feedback. Because those of us who are sort of in the ivory tower, who are teaching, it’s sometimes hard to know are we really on track. We think we are; we try to get feedback, but it’s the alums who are out there. You’re the ones that are in business, you’re the ones that are hiring our students, and we really appreciate hearing back from you. What are we doing right, what are we doing wrong, what can we do a little bit better?

And I don’t mean at the top level. So when you write to Bowen, it might get back to me. Probably not. But if students from my department—whether you graduated five years ago or 10 years ago or 15 years ago or whatever—would write back and say, “You know, it was great but  I would have really liked this” or “It’s unbelievable how well you’re doing; don’t change a thing.” That’s actually really useful, because knowing how our students are faring in the world five years later is a really good thing. And that’ll help us sort of fine tune what we’re trying to do with them. So feedback is always, always appreciated.