SDSU Turns to Former Students to Fill Dwindling Coffers

San Diego State University officials have begun what they say is an aggressive public relations and computer campaign aimed at finding and convincing thousands of former students to give money to the school.

The fund-raising drive comes at a time when colleges and universities are becoming increasingly competitive for the kind of private donations they need to supplement their shrinking public appropriations. One SDSU booster acknowledges this kind of competition for local dollars may pit the school against the more prestigious UC San Diego.

“We think that San Diego State has not gotten its due,” said Mike Sund, member of the Alumni and Development Board of Directors. “It doesn’t have parity (with UCSD) in the public eye. And it deserves it.”

It also comes a year after the SDSU alumni board staff failed to meet its $375,000 goal for “unrestricted” gifts--private money that can be used at the school’s discretion. That shortfall, said Leslie Yerger, director of SDSU University Relations and Development, was about $20,000, but another source places it closer to $40,000.

“We just haven’t been asking,” Yerger said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Despite the shortfall, Yerger said SDSU officials remain optimistic that their “aggressive new fund-raising drive” can make alumni donations increase “geometrically.” She pointed out that in 1980, the school only received $56,000 from former students in unrestricted gifts.

SDSU is implementing a two-pronged drive for more money. First, it hopes to underscore and improve the school’s image by drawing greater attention to its programs and ties to the community.

Yerger said that she has a new assistant in charge of “special events,” such as a planned salute to Japan in February. The assistant is also responsible for recruiting experts in business and other fields to speak to students on campus.

At the same time, Sund and other members of the alumni board have been hashing out ideas to use in an anticipated SDSU advertising campaign. Sund said the group has already come up with one possible slogan: “Education that Works.”

“The suggestion comes from the notion that San Diego State is the kind of university that trains people to go out into the community,” said Sund, who works as public relations director of the Joan B. Kroc Foundation.

“If you look at City Hall or the corporations, you’re going to find that many of the workers and managers are San Diego State graduates,” he said.

“We don’t have to do some kind of a snow job to give San Diego State a more positive image,” Sund said. “All we have to do is give San Diego State more publicity.”

To help with the embryonic advertising program, SDSU administrators also have hired senior account executive Sue Raney from the Gail Stoorza public relations firm. Raney, who begins her $37,000-a-year job as “communications director” Monday, also will be in charge of the university’s news service and graphic design department.

While SDSU will strive to improve its image, it will also be trying to become more efficient in reaping the financial windfall it expects from the publicity.

The alumni board staff, which was housed in a building on the fringe of campus, has been relocated to the school administration building, a move that will mean administrators can keep a closer eye on the operation.

In addition, the school has hired Cliff Underwood, former development director for the San Diego Zoo, to work as a fund-raising consultant for six months for $15,000. Another SDSU administrator is being promoted to a position where he will contact school alumni and persuade them to include the institution in their wills and estates.

But the heart of this drive for fund-raising efficiency will be a new computer program that will be able to store “all kinds of information” on the 80,000 alumni names on SDSU files, Yerger said.

This way, she said, school officials will be able to better target special mailings to former SDSU students who share particular interests. This direct-mail technique has been successful in political fund-raising and campaigns.

Yerger said SDSU will also be working to find and solicit another 60,000 students who “have passed through the institution and may not have graduated.” These names are currently unavailable but may prove to be a rich, untapped source for the school, Yerger said.

“We think they’ll respond,” she said about the “lost” alumni. “All we need to do is ask.”