This past weekend, thousands of University of Iowa alumni returned to campus for Homecoming. For alumni, it was an opportunity to reminisce and reflect on what the UI means to them.
For the rest of the university community, it was a reminder of what alumni mean to us, how they keep our university strong, and how they pay their experience forward to new generations of Hawkeye grads.
Some 262,000 UI alumni are living today around the world, more than 89,000 of them in the state of Iowa.
Their full impact on their communities is incalculable, but you’ve heard some of the statistics. The University of Iowa has educated most of the state’s dentists, half of our doctors, and educators in every Iowa school district, not to mention cadres of artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, pharmacists, journalists, and many more professions.
The ways alumni give back to the university and our communities are just as vast. Our faculty and staff ranks include thousands of UI grads, and hundreds more mentor students in community settings including clinics, schools, and businesses.
Our alumni are also civic leaders and volunteers, many who developed their sense of community service while on the UI campus involved in projects such as Dance Marathon or organizations like UI Student Government. They continue to give back through Rotary and Lions Clubs, serving on school boards, and volunteering in churches, food banks, and homeless shelters.
Many of our most committed donors are former UI students, of course, and alumni are some of our loudest, proudest advocates. They help us recruit students by offering what no one else can—firsthand accounts of how Iowa can change a life.
They comprise a global network that I’m convinced is as strong as any other school’s. If you’ve ever had a glimpse of black and gold on the other side of the world turn a stranger into a friend, you know exactly what I mean.
Here’s to our University of Iowa alumni. Thank you for being the core of the Hawkeye family.
Jean Robillard, M.D.
Interim President
Vice President for Medical Affairs