The Alumni Association Becomes an EPFL Service
The organisation changes, the team stays. Annelies Garcia remain the directrice of the Association© 2014 EPFL
EPFL’s Alumni Association is now an official service of the school. This next step in the association’s evolution, passed in a general meeting, will allow more synergies between EPFL and its graduates and among alumni themselves. The current team that leads the Alumni network’s growth will continue to direct this new office.
It’s official. Since Tuesday evening, EPFL’s association for its alumni, the A3 (Amicale des Anciens Alumni), has become a service under the General Secretariat. The dissolution of A3 EPFL Alumni was endorsed by almost 95% of the voting members—with more than 2,700 signatures! Seen as a positive and natural change by the parties involved, this institutional merger makes continuing support for a network of graduates a central mission of the school alongside its other goals of education, research, and technology transfer. As alumni are considered strategic ambassadors for EPFL out in the world, strengthening ties within this vast network of 27,000 graduates promises to create fruitful scientific and industrial collaborations.
The team led by Annelies Garcia remains in place. The same is true for the regional and international antennas whose ties with the school, and the means for maintaining them, now can be even stronger. While participation in A3 was automatically initiated upon registration, the new association is interested in networking all holders of an EPFL diploma.
The association, founded in 1877, has survived until today on the contributions of approximately 5,500 members. The new structure will be more extensive with greater ambitions to follow the evolution of EPFL. “The expectations of our graduates are increasing. Value-added services, the creation of international subnetworks, multicultural communication, the professionalism of our communications materials—the needs of our alumni are many,” says Odile Batty Saavedra, president of A3.
An alumni council will be formed to keep ties with the alumni base, and alumni services will be extended to all graduates. They will have access to the directory and to a free newsletter. A small annual contribution will be required for existing services along with a host of new ones currently in development. This structure follows similar international trends in managing the networks of graduates from leading universities.