The Colorado Mesa University (CMU) Alumni Chapter has added the Hawaii chapter as of recently. Director of Student Services Jared Meier is excited about the newest addition.
To anyone who may not be familiar with the CMU Alumni Association, they’re essentially a group comprised of upwards of 42,000 CMU graduates, former students, and past of faculty.
“These alumni and friends cherish the history of the institution, support its current efforts and believe in its promising future. The Alumni Association strives to connect former Mavericks, wherever they may be, put on engaging events and provide a forum for networking and professional resources,” Meier said.
The process of starting a new chapter may not be a difficult one, but it certainly requires a solid basis of reasoning as to why a new chapter should be added.
“To start an alumni chapter, a person or group completes a process to explain the “why” of their chapter and how they plan to engage a specific sub sector of our alumni base. A sub-committee of our Board of Directors, the Chapter Support Committee, reviews and makes the decision on it,” Meier said.
Often times, when a new Chapter in the Alumni Association is established, the primary goal of the chapter is to create a network of alumni for people to use as a resource. However, according to Meier, the reasoning as to why the Hawaii Chapter was more than just a means of networking.
“The hope is that the chapter will create a stronger network of alumni, coordinate fun annual events for a chance to catch up more regularly and assist the current students with the transition to higher ed[ucation] and the vastly different environment that they are used to,” Meier said.
Not only are the CMU Alumni Association excited about this new addition, but the Ho’olokahi Polynesian Student Alliance (HPA) is as well.
“My wife is the advisor of HPA and she’s also the Vice President of the Chapter, so she feels that the chapter will be of great value to HPA and is looking forward to more alumni getting involved with the annual lu’au and the Hawaii Student Welcome weekend in the fall,” Meier said.
Meier went on to say, “The Hawaii Chapter aims to continually engage and unite the many alumni that came to CMU from Hawaii and support current and future Maverick students from Hawaii.”
