About the Alumni Association of the University of Colorado Boulder

Alumni Association history

The Alumni Association was established by CU graduates on June 4, 1882, the afternoon after the university’s first commencement. These first alumni recognized the need for an ongoing involvement with the University and laid out their objectives for an alumni organization.

The purpose of this organization shall be to encourage alumni, students, friends and all members of the University community to engage with, contribute to and celebrate the University of Colorado at Boulder.

For a number of years the group held only one annual meeting with a featured speaker. The organization grew as a broad spectrum of activities developed. Before long the organization established chapters, welcomed women as members, held class reunions, created alumni programs and launched alumni publications. You may have seen their inflatible mascot “Alphie” at pregames.

Today, the association serves over 250,000 alumni worldwide. Based in the Koenig Alumni Center at the corner of Broadway and University Avenues, it administers scholarships, awards, online networking opportunities, alumni chapters, campus lectures, and publishes the monthly electronic newsletter Buffalum Notes and the quarterly alumni magazine, the Coloradan. See our staff listing here.

More than a century after its founding, the association’s statement of purpose is an expanded and matured version of that of the 1882 statement.

The purpose of the Alumni Association is to provide programs and services, which stimulate interest in, build loyalty for, and increase support for the University of Colorado at Boulder among its alumni and alumni-to-be (students). The programs and services offered by the association are supportive of an environment that encourages gender, ethnic and cultural diversity.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is made up of officers and directors who are the central force of the Alumni Association of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Board provides the guidance, counsel and vision, directing the association staff and volunteers in their work of serving CU-Boulder and its alumni. Directors determine policy, set guidelines and establish the bylaws under which the association and its various programs operate. Read more about our Board of Directors.

Forever Buffs

In November 2008, the Alumni Association launched its Forever Buffs initiative by discontinuing its membership dues program and welcoming all 240,000 alumni and 30,000 students to a lifetime of services.

Forever Buffs strives to create stronger professional and social networks, develop a culture of giving and service and foster a stronger sense of CU pride.

Students receive access to alumni-sponsored scholarships, invites to events, leads for internship and job possibilities and opportunities to ask alums for advice in person and through Forever Buffs Network, an alumni-student online community.

The association also has more than 5,000 student members in The Herd, the association’s fee-based student arm, which provides students with positive memories and connections with others through their events.

University of Colorado history

A belief that education would improve their community led early Boulder settlers to lobby the first Territorial Legislature of 1861 to select Boulder as the site for the state university. The rallying cry for the town became, “Give Boulder the State University and the rest of Colorado may take all other state institutions.”

At its first session in 1861 the Territorial Legislature of Colorado passed an act providing for a university at Boulder . However, the dream would not be realized for 14 years as the territory grew slowly because of a mining slump and the Civil War. Between 1861 and 1876 Boulder citizens donated land and money to match the $15,000 appropriated by the legislature for the university. The university was formally founded in 1876, the same year that Colorado became the Centennial State. CU opened on Sept. 5, 1877, with 44 students including women, a president and one instructor.

Visit the CU Heritage Center, sponsored by the Alumni Association, to learn more about the history of the university.

Today, the university system includes campuses at Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver and the Anschutz medical campus. The combined enrollment is more than 55,000. An elected, nine-member Board of Regents governs the university, charged with the general supervision and financial control of CU.

The Boulder university offers 3,400 courses in about 150 fields of study, including 85 majors at the bachelor’s level, 70 at the master’s level and 50 at the doctoral level. CU received nearly $260 million in sponsored research awards for the 2004 fiscal year, nearly $10 million more than the previous year, and set another campus record for sponsored research. NASA and its affiliates provided the most award dollars – $50.6 million – followed by the Department of Health and Human Services with $49.5 million and the National Science Foundation with $48.3 million.

It has nearly 100 research centers, institutes and laboratories focusing on everything from music entrepreneurship to determining the causes of school violence.

The university also has a proud Olympic heritage, with over sixty olympic athletes among its alumni.

Get a Windows screensaver that features the CU Campus (zipped scr , 3.1Mb) – there’s also a Mac version (zipped screensaver , 9.6Mb) .

Wikipedia entry for “University of Colorado Boulder“