Research On Harvard Alumni Association

Alumni as the products of the colleges and universities, and they are also a kind of valuable resource and wealth for the colleges and universities. In recent years, with the domestic universities and colleges have more and more recognized that the alumni is very important to their development in the future. Most of the domestic colleges and universities have already start the alumni work, moreover, they have made a great achievements, especially at the establishing of the alumni organizations, the construction of the alumni network, and the alumni programs. However, it's necessary to the domestic colleges and universities to continue to make an effort to explore and study on this meaningful job, and their alumni work still in its infancy, there are some problems and deficiencies during their development process. By contrast, the alumni work in the American colleges and universities, especially in the famous one, has already reached in the mature stage. This thesis will use the case study method and collect a large mount of historical documents and data to do a research on the Harvard Alumni Association's tangible organization and intangible culture.Harvard Alumni Association was founded in 1840, it has been 176 years of history, and its growing up is accompanied by the development of the Harvard University. The purpose of the HAA is to promote the welfare of Harvard University and to establish a mutually beneficial relationship between Harvard University and its alumni. This paper will take some important events as the splitting point to divide the HAA's development process into three stages. That is from the initial sporadic of small-scale alumni events, to the Alumni Association was formally established, and then to the professional development stage. Harvard University has a sound alumni association, and its alumni work executes college-university management mechanism. The HAA employed a large number of professional workers and recruited a lot of alumni volunteers, and sent them to the first line. At the same time, the HAA has lunched a various of events and programs, which was not only connected the alumni with alma mater, but bonded the alumni with each other, and these activities as well as promote the sustainable development of the university and alumni.After a long time of development, Harvard University has already formed its unique alumni culture. This kind of culture is that Harvard University always respects and concerns its students and alumni, and shares bits and pieces with them, meanwhile, the Harvard people have been immersed in the volunteer spirit, which to make Harvard a place overfill with love. To the conclusion, in order to make the alumni work run well, we'd better not only found a sound alumni organization and adopt perfect management mechanism, but we should cultivate the unique alumni culture, because this is the foundation of the alumni work, and it is also a booster for the colleges and universities to carry out the alumni work smoothly.