Editorial : Role as alumni important, life-long duty

From the grassy, sun-drenched Quad to the dark corners of Chuck’s Café, promises of visits, Homecoming returns, good lucks and painful farewells echo through campus.

The weight of nostalgia has reached a fever pitch. The routine walks to the Schine Student Center or down Marshall Street or Euclid Avenue have become surreal moments of reflection as you envision the familiar — friends’ apartments, teachers’ offices, favorite restaurants and study spaces — one day becoming unfamiliar.

The looming move away from school and, for many, a move far away from the city feels like the end of an era. It is, but it is also the beginning of your role as alumni, a role that demands you are forever involved in the changes and future of this campus.

Most graduates made one of the single greatest investments of their life — both financially and emotionally — by coming to Syracuse University for college. Being active alumni, connecting with future students, providing guidance for them, visiting, and speaking up about changes to campus policy and politics becomes your responsibility when you walk across that stage.

Alumni comprise the greatest force for change and direction at this school. They serve as members of the Board of Trustees, donate influential and targeted gifts, and create a network of professionals to guide thousands of future graduates. But most importantly alumni hold an institutional memory that becomes greater and more relevant than any chancellor’s, administrator’s or director’s.

Alumni status demands more than attendance at Homecoming or a few emails with an eager student. Alumni status provides more than a smile at the sight of an SU sweatshirt in a crowded airport, a drunken cheer in a bar as SU wins another bowl game or an apt for navigating through many feet of snow. Alumni status means a dedication to your degree and to its value.

If you so choose, you can have the single greatest effect on SU’s future. So, for those who ache from the number of goodbyes this weekend, remember your role here is far from over.