Published online July 6, 2017
The Jan. 11 issue of the Alumni Weekly includes a timely and noteworthy letter from Tom Wolf ’48, our class secretary. Mr. Wolf stresses the need for information about and contact between the University and its worldwide alumni community, graduate and undergraduate. This is hampered by the limited (mostly online) distribution of the PAW distribution to graduate alumni. As Mr. Wolf’s letter notes, PAW is the main medium of communication likely to get attention from and be of interest to all alumni.
The comment from the PAW editor admitting that graduate alumni get some issues in hard copy, but most only electronically with supplementary material, is an unresponsive, inadequate answer to Mr. Wolf’s letter. (The letter obviously asks for PAW’s attention as well.)
Although PAW is editorially independent of the University administration, it is supported at least in part by alumni class dues. Assuring the best possible communication between the University and all alumni is surely in the best interest of the University, of all alumni, and of the magazine.
As President Eisgruber ’83 stressed in his remarks at the Dec. 6 gathering of Seattle-area alumni, and of course as is emphasized in the current Annual Giving campaign, the University craves continued interest, participation, and financial support by all alumni. Surely PAW is an effective medium – and for many, the only regularly available medium, other than pleas from Annual Giving – for the best possible alumni/University contact and for continued alumni participation and support.