Ruperto Carola Intensifies Contacts with Graduates and Alumni

Heidelberg Alumni International (HAI) moves into new offices in the Old Town

New offices and additional personnel for alumni work at Heidelberg University: The new staff unit, under the direction of Silke Rodenberg (centre), cooperates closely with the Society of Friends of the University of Heidelberg (GDF). Third from the left: Sabine von Helmolt, Executive Director of the GDF office.

Photo: Kresin

Heidelberg University maintains an active global network of 6,300 former students, graduates and associates – through Heidelberg Alumni International (HAI).  To step up its activities for former Heidelberg students from Germany and abroad, the university rectorate has established a separate staff unit. Together with its close partner, the Society of Friends of Heidelberg University, the staff unit has moved into new office space in the Old Town. Heidelberg Volksbank helped renovate and equip the new accommodations with a donation of 20,000 euros.

Check from the Heidelberg Volksbank Foundation for Heidelberg University’s alumni work, being handed over by foundation board members Dieter Horstmann (second from left) and Jürgen Neidinger (second from right). Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel (right), Rector of Heidelberg University, and Andreas Epple (left), acting chairman of the Society of Friends, gladly accept the generous donation.

Photo: Kresin

Heidelberg University extended an invitation to the official opening of the new offices on 13 September 2010. Foundation board members Jürgen Neidinger, member of the executive board of the Heidelberg Volksbank, and Dieter Horstmann, acting chairman of the supervisory board, presented the donation check to university rector Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel. Numerous associates, alumni and friends of Heidelberg University and others used the opportunity to explore the new accommodations in the former Institute for Political Science at Marstallstraße 6 and to talk with the alumni team.

“The restructuring is an important step for the cooperation with alumni in terms of both strategy and substance. It documents the esteem in which Heidelberg University holds its former students and the special significance of its work with the alumni,” explains Silke Rodenberg, director of the new staff unit. Bernard Schreier, chairman of the Society of Friends, adds: “The addition of personnel and creation of new office space to support and strengthen alumni activities gives an enormous boost to our years of work in the service of Heidelberg University.” In addition to the Heidelberg Volksbank eG, the Heidelberg University Foundation also lent its support to setting up the new office.

Until now, the Heidelberg Alumni International network, founded in 1996, worked primarily with former students from abroad. Within Germany itself, many alumni are members of the “Society of Friends”. With its expanded mission, the staff unit intends to merge the activities of the two organisations, expand the Heidelberg alumni network and tie in existing alumni associations. This includes new and extended initiatives at the faculty and department levels.