Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Derek Field introduced an alumni outreach project aimed at increasing student issue awareness at an External Affairs Committee meeting Tuesday.
Field began contacting past ASM student members in an effort to find specific alumni who better understand issues like college affordability and student shared governance.
Field said they hope to find alumni who could contact their legislators to show their support of student issues in the Biennial Budget. State agencies submit requests for the budget for the governor’s review.
“If we just try to get more people talking about college affordability in general that will help our cause,” Field said. “Everybody knows how unaffordable college is right now so more attention to the issue the better it will be for students.”
The External Affairs Committee brainstormed other possible ways to contact alumni including asking for more out-of-state alumni contacts. Field said out-of-state alumni might not have a direct impact with the budget, but they could have connections to others who might be able to help.
Committee members also said they hope to involve ASM alumni in the future to help support or prevent changes to the university that might help or hurt students.
“Sometimes people view alumni just as a bank account,” said Legislative Affairs Committee Chair Tom Gierok. “I think they are very useful in the fact that they were once students just like us working on issues just like we are.”
