By Degrees BOOK

Written by: Christine Keller Smith

This book begins in a desert, an alumni desert, at the University of 
Auckland in 1989. In the beginning there was no alumni relations 
programme for the University’s major stakeholders, the graduates, 
who far outnumber staff and students, the other stakeholders. 
At the end of this story, in 2024, after 35 years of intensive 
cultivation, there is a globally award-winning alumni relations 
programme of far-reaching engagement and consequence. 

This book tells the tales of what happened and when, with some 
‘how’ and ‘where’, underpinned with the ‘what for’ throughout. 
The ‘how’ is most interesting and unusual. The University 
decided to encourage the growth in the desert by planting some 
seeds for the alumni to nurture and harvest. The University did 
some irrigation, but left most of the cultivation to the alumni 
themselves. That is the unusual part.

By Degrees, The transformation of alumni relations at Waipapa

Taumata Rau, University of Auckland by Christine Keller Smith is

an exciting new book capturing the history of alumni relations at

the University, including the work of both the Alumni Association

and the University of Auckland Society.