Over this past year, my first as Baruch College president, I had the great privilege of meeting many of the wonderful alumni of this institution in the New York area and during visits to California, Florida, and Washington, D.C. I always come away impressed by your deep support of Baruch and your desire to hear about your alma mater. To keep you even better informed about what is happening at your college, I am inaugurating this column, where I hope to share with you news from Baruch.

I especially wish to underscore the renewed commitment the College is making to you, our alumni. We have long recognized the need to re-connect our alumni to the College and our students to ensure the success we have experienced in recent years. To this end, on June 1, 2005, we officially opened the first office committed solely to addressing the needs and concerns of alumni—The Baruch College Office of Alumni Relations—and appointed Lisa Poullard-Burton (’90) as our first-ever director of alumni relations. Lisa has more than 10 years of experience in the development, management, and operation of an alumni office and the added benefit of being an alumna (see her profile on p. 41 in Class Notes, where you will also find contact information). The Office of Alumni Relations will oversee the formation of the Baruch College Alumni Federation, an umbrella advisory group to coordinate global alumni activities.

As an alumnus of Baruch College you can enjoy:

• Networking events with alumni in a variety of professions from around
  the globe
• Membership in the Baruch Online Community, where you can obtain lifetime e-mail and find your old classmates in the Online Directory
• Opportunities to mentor through such programs as the Executives On Campus
• Career development seminars hosted by Baruch’s Career Development Center
• Discounts to BPAC, the Baruch Performing Arts Center (see the article on page 12)

As part of our effort to re-engage our graduates, the College has launched a new advertising campaign, Generation Baruch (see the inside front cover). This campaign reflects Baruch’s continuity of purpose and mission by highlighting the fact that the essential nature of our students has not changed—intelligent, motivated, ambitious men and women who, though they may differ in culture, heritage, and tradition, all share the desire to better themselves and advance in life. Visit our Web site to view the first ad in this series, which ran last May in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Daily News (http://www .baruch.cuny.edu/news/gen_baruch_ad.htm).

Our commitment to you is also demonstrated by this very magazine, which we now send three times a year to nearly 90,000 alumni. And to make sure we’re clear about who this publication is for, take a closer look at our redesigned cover and its proud and prominent title, Baruch College Alumni Magazine.

In these pages you will find news about a vibrant and revitalized college with current and former students bringing to life Baruch’s motto, “The American Dream Still Works.”

I look forward to seeing many more of you in the coming year.

Photo by Jerry Speier