The first General Assembly of the Spring 2019 semester took place on Feb. 3. Topics discussed at the assembly mainly revolved around alumni relations. These included discussions on ways of keeping contact with alumni, the roles of Student Interest Groups and the Career Development Center in the process as well as privacy issues related to contacting alumni. Additionally, issues around student financing, flight arrival times and the Dean of Students’ performance were brought up.

Student Government dedicated the GA session to alumni relations ahead of a meeting between Student Government and John Pine, Director of Alumni Relations, to be held on Thursday Feb. 7. Students addressed the lack of a formal process to contact alumni, citing that the Career Development Center asks them to use the career networking platform LinkedIn. Specific student groups such as the football team said they were more successful in keeping contact with alumni through Facebook and having them involved in matches such as the annual Interclassico football match. Another student suggested hosting mixers at NYU’s Global Network sites. Student Government noted that such events were in fact being held but irregularly. Further suggestions included having alumni become more involved with existing mentorship programs and SIGs on campus, connecting them with students from the same field.

Beyond community-based initiatives to connect with alumni, questions were raised about what measures the university itself was taking to keep in contact with alumni. Some ideas presented included the creation of an opt-in alumni database, follow ups that extended beyond the one-year span of the Life Beyond Saadiyat annual report and an alumni magazine. Some posed uncertainty that these solutions would be feasible, based on the the privacy rights of alumni.

Students also discussed framing alumni relations to center around a common sense of community instead of solely focusing on career networking. One student noted that the university has done little to reach out to alumni, causing them to feel isolated from the community post-graduation.

Opening up discussion to further topics, students brought up difficulties in getting access to Wirecard’s customer service abroad. This left several students without access to scholarship funds during their study away. These difficulties included slow replies from the Office of Student Finance, and cards not working in the U.S. One student expressed “much dissatisfaction” with the Dean of Students and indicated that other members of the student body share this opinion. Student Government asked for more specific feedback to better address any potential concerns.

Finally, a student reiterated the request for more time between arriving on campus and the beginning of classes to avoid jet lag and travel fatigue.