History of the Association

UBC’s Alumni Association was founded in 1917 as an independent organization with the aim of fostering a life-long relationship between the university and its graduates. The Alumni Association is governed by an elected Board of Directors, and alumni serve on the university’s Senate and Board of Governors.

UBC’s alumni body grew dramatically from 40,000 in the 1960s to more than 225,000 today.  In 1989, the newly-formed UBC Development Office took over maintenance of the alumni database and the Annual Alumni Fund as part of the strategic launch of the World of Opportunity fundraising campaign.  For the next 15 years, the Association continued with its core programs but its budget remained static. Services provided to UBC alumni did not keep pace with the university’s development and consequently relations between the Alumni Association and the University became fragile.

In 2004, after several years of negotiations, the University and the Alumni Association established a new formal relationship to ensure that alumni and the institution worked together for mutual benefit.  Alumni Affairs is the overarching structure which encompasses the activities of both the independently managed UBC Alumni Association and the Alumni Relations Unit of the Vice President, Students office.

The Alumni Affairs team partners with alumni volunteers and colleagues across the institution to create opportunities for UBC graduates to engage with their alma mater.   Although the group works effectively as one unit, the continued existence of an independent “voice” of alumni has proven useful, allowing the Alumni Association to mobilize alumni to advocate on behalf of UBC and to report on complex issues (i.e. undergraduate access issues) with alumni perspectives as the primary consideration.  Two years into this new partnership, all parties agree that the arrangement is working extremely well.