To all the University of Houston alumni and future alumni: Honor your alma mater.
One of a university’s most important foundations is the support of its alumni – whether it’s through financial donations, attendance at sporting events or participation in functions. The University needs an increased presence from its alumni to better the school and give it a boost toward flagship status.
In fiscal year 2007, UH alumni donated a meager $9.3 million to the University. It seems upon graduation, UH alumni decide the University will be fine on its own and requires no other commitment beyond tuition and fees. This is not so.
The University of Houston can be compared to a mother nourishing hungry minds and producing professionals who go out into the world and contribute to industry and society. UH, intellectually speaking, is our mother. She has prepared us to think critically, imparted knowledge to us and most importantly, she has been a home to our education. And when we are gone, she will continue to do so.
Those who come after us will look to us, as graduates and alumni, as the example.
Will we follow the examples set by too many alumni and abandon our school to the fiscal crumbs of the state of Texas?
Will we force what is meant to be a bastion of individual thought and societal responsibility to grovel at the wallets and purses of corporations and modern-day robber barons?
Will we push the increasingly greater cost of education and the price of renovations and expansion entirely on those who will, one day, call themselves Cougars?
We must break the cycle – we who stand ashamed of the hundreds of thousands of alumni who can’t even cast a glance at their alma mater, let alone throw it a pittance of a few dollars or purchase tickets to a sporting event.
The responsibility of the sustainment of our University doesn’t end upon receipt of the diploma. This isn’t Wal-Mart, where you throw a few items in a cart – a B.S. in chemical engineering and a couple of film classes for fun, for example – pay your bill and then hit the road, bobbing your head to Miley Cyrus. This is an institution, to be made greater by each new generation of students.
Take up the responsibility dropped into our laps by our predecessors. Be true to your school, and never forget it.
