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THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
On the day when the first class was graduated from the University of Michigan, August 6, 1845, the newly created alumni body numbered exactly eleven. The smallness of this number, however, did not prevent the formation of an organization. Immediately after the Commencement exercises, at a meeting of the graduates of the different "collegiate institutions" in Ann Arbor, a Society of the Alumni was formed and an executive committee of seven was appointed to prepare a plan of organization and to "procure an orator and poet" for the next annual meeting. The following membership provision was adopted:
It is of interest to note that of the executive committee thus authorized two were members of the University's class of 1845 — P. W. H. Rawls, of Kalamazoo, and Edmund Fish, of Bloomfield. The other members were the Reverend Dr. Duffield (Pennsylvania '11), J. M. Howard (Williams College), George V. N. Lathrop (Brown), George E. Hand (Yale), and Professor Andrew Ten Brook (Madison [Hamilton] '39).The graduates of all other colleges resident in the State desirous of becoming members of this society are requested to send in their names to any member of the executive committee with the name of the institution at which they were graduated and the degree and date of graduation.
Few records are available of the activities of this early organization, though we have an account of the second meeting in 1846, in which a poem on "New England," by William Pitt Palmer, was characterized as a "very handsome production." In 1848 Professor J. Holmes Agnew, President of the Faculty for that year, announced that the degree of master of arts would not be conferred on the graduates of 1845, in accordance with custom in colleges of that period, but would be postponed until the annual Commencement of 1849. The next year Merchant H. Goodrich, of Ann Arbor, and Winfield Smith, of Monroe, were given the degree. This practice was continued until 1882.
In 1853 the alumni met in the Presbyterian Church on the afternoon of Commencement Day, elected officers, and chose an orator for the following Commencement — the invariable agenda for those early meetings. A further action was taken, however, in the passage of the following resolutions, setting forth the objects of the organization:
Since all the officers elected at this meetingResolved, That as Alumni of the University of Michigan, feeling a solicitude for its success, and for the promotion and development of the educational interests of this State, — knowing that to those who have passed the portals of our University, it has a right to look for some effort for its welfare, — and, being satisfied that by this organization alone, can any united action be attained, we earnestly call the attention of our fellow graduates to its objects, and commend it to a more hearty support.
Resolved, That to its annual meeting and exercises we must, in a great measure, look for the promotion of friendly feeling among our graduates, and for a continuance of interest in the commencement exercises of our university.
Resolved, That the Executive Committee be instructed to consult with the Faculty of the University, and to make such arrangements for the social and literary exercises of our next meeting as will induce a more full attendance and general interest.
Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to procure the publication of the minutes of this meeting in Detroit and Ann Arbor papers.