Alumni Giving

From time to time, interesting stuff gets passed my way by people connected to SMU. The administration is busy scratching its head on how to improve its rankings in US News & World Report (#71). One thing that is considered is percentage of alumni that give money to the institution. Now, this isn't based on amount, but rather percentage. So, hypothetically, if a school has 100 alumni and they all give $1, that school gets a perfect score as opposed to a school that has 100 alumni and five give $100 each, which would get a 5% score. Got it?

Anyway, do you know what percentage of SMU alumni give money to SMU?

drumroll

14 percent. That is right. 14 freakin' percent. Where does that rank among other Texas schools?

Rice 36%
TCU 28%
Baylor 24%
Texas A & M 20%
Texas Tech 20%
SMU 14%
U of Texas-Austin 10%

It is funny to see UT at the bottom. Notice, of the private schools, which one is bringing up the rear. And it isn't even close. Remember, this is a percentage, so class size shouldn't make a difference.

I wonder what SMU can do to get its alumni more involved. Hmmm.... If only there was something to generate a little media interest. If only there was something to get alumni on campus in large numbers several times a year. If only there was something that could make the alumni feel good about its school.

BTW, this little report I have is very interesting. Anybody want to hazard a guess the names of the "benchmark" institutions SMU judges itself against? Anybody want to hazard a guess the names of the institutions SMU considers its peers? You can probably guess some of the former, but very few of the latter. And you will be a little disappointed, too.