I am looking for information on the history of U.S. university alumni
associations - the premise behind the idea, the first organized alumni
association, dates of when the Big Ten universities alumni
associations began, etc.

yvonne0568...

Thanks for a very interesting question.  Alumni associations can trace
their roots back to the Yale class of 1792, which was the first class
to organize alumni by class.  The first university in the United
States to organize a univeristy wide alumni association was Williams
College, of Williamston, Mass.  During a crises within the colleg in
1821, a group of graduates gathered together to address the issues as
well organize the Society of Alumni of Williams College, which was
dedicated to the welfare of the College.

Here is a breakdown of when the Big 10 schools alumni assocatiations
were founded (The founding years of MSU and Northwestern were not
available online, so I sent emails and will post the dates upon
receipt of response):

Wisconsin Alumni Association - 1861
Indiana University Alumni Association - 1854
University of Illinois Alumni Association - 1867
University of Iowa Alumni Association - 1867
Alumni Association of the University of Michigan - 1845
University of Minnesota alumni association - 1904
Northwestern Alumni Association - email sent for founding date
Michigan State University Alumni Association - email sent for founding
date
The Ohio State University Alumni Association - 1911
Penn State Alumni Association - 1870
Purdue University - 1878

Thanks for your question.  If you need any additional clarification,
please let me know prior to rating my answer.

Regards,

-THV

Search Strategy:
visited each university web page
"Alumni association history"
"History of alumni assocations"

References:
History
http://www.alumnifriends.mines.edu/Alumni/history/default.htm

History of the College
http://www.williams.edu/home/about/history.html

Indiana University Alumni Association
http://www.indiana.edu/~alumni/

University of Illinois Alumni Association 
http://www.uiaa.org/

University of Iowa Alumni Association 
http://www.iowalum.com/

Alumni Association of the University of Michigan
http://www.umich.edu/~umalumni/

University of Minnesota
http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/kiosk/02.01text/150years.html

Northwestern Alumni Association
http://alumni.northwestern.edu/

The Ohio State University Alumni Association
http://www.ohiostatealumni.org/

Penn State Alumni Association
http://www.alumni.psu.edu

MSU Alumni Association
http://www.msualum.com/

Purdue Alumni Association
http://www.purduealum.org/

Wisconsin Alumni Association
http://home.uwalumni.com/

---

Clarification of Answer by tar_heel_v-ga on 10 Apr 2003 13:59 PDT

Yvonne..

Thanks for the 5-star rating and the generous tip.  I heard from the
Michigan State University Alumni Association and they were founded in
1982.  The contact I made at Northwestern was researching and will get
back to me.

Thanks!

-THV

Wow!  Thanks for a super response!  I am working on a project for the
U of MN alumni association and this infor will fit nicely.  I
appreciate it very much.
Yvonne