Establishing a good relationship with alumni can be beneficial for the university. In addition to their contribution in donating money for scholarships for the students, the alumni contributions in the form of ideas are also needed by the university to support the quality of learning and teaching. Some universities across the world even put the alumni as ambassadors to introduce the university to a global level.
Seeing some of the benefits earlier, it is important for UGM to be able to maximize the alumni potential by establishing a well integrated service system. This was explained by Dr. Danang Sri Hadmoko, Secretary of the Directorate of Partnership, Alumni, and Global Initiatives, in his opening speech at the on Integration of UGM Alumni and Career Service Unit Service System Workshop on Thursday (1/12) at Yustisia room UC UGM.
“UGM has great alumni potential so the university must be able to optimize it through a form of alumni service that is well integrated by leveraging IT advances. Apart from being a medium of communication between the alumni and the university, this service is also expected to accommodate alumni who want to contribute to their alma mater,”he said.
Similar thing also expressed by Haryanta, S.Psi., Psi., M.A, who stressed the importance of establishinga structured and integrated organization system both at university and faculty level regarding the alumni management. According to her UGM alumni network has been very strong, but they are personal and individual. “Alumni UGM is strong but still personal and not yet well organized so a system and a leader that can maximize the alumni potential in behalf of the university are needed,” he said when invited to speak for the ‘Being An Organizational Change Leader’ theme.
On another occasion, also attended Dr. Sulistyowati, Head of Alumni Relations Sub-directorate UGM, which described the results of performance and programs that have been implemented by the Sub-directorate she leads. She expects in the year 2017 there will be more synergistic relationship between the Alumni and Career Services Units (UPAK) at both university and faculty level. Some programs such as Tracer Study 2017, Alumni Award, Integrated Career Days and others require integration with UPAK at the faculty level as in for data base and validation. “Our hope is UPAK synergy in the future at university and faculty level will be established well so that all the planned programs can run optimally,” she said.
In the last session of the workshop, also attended Wisnu Saputro, S.T. of DSSDI UGM to explain the technical aspect of Simponi and Sahabat UGM applicationsto the invited guests who were UPAK representatives from all faculties at UGM. [Eggy]