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Alumni association president Will Alexander III said he wants to help student organizations raise funds and secure expert speakers for alumni and student events.

After more than 20 years at GW, new alumni president Will Alexander III says he won’t be “pushed” when it comes to advocating for community members and student engagement on campus. said.

Branded as the “poster boy of GW” by former college president Steven Joel Trachtenberg and fellow students in the early 2000s, Alexander was the last of former alumni president Christine Brown Quinn’s two-year term. took over the second half. Association president election. He said he wants to help student organizations on campus work directly with the alumni community and use his position to advocate for students and faculty along with administrators.

The board confirmed Alexander as GWAA president in May, formally succeeding Brown Quinn on 1 July. After a draw in last year’s election, instead of having a runoff vote, the term was split in two.

After graduating from GW’s on-campus School Without Walls High School in 2000, Alexander received the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Scholarship, which provides a fully-funded education at GW to about 10 DC-based students each year. I came to GW for the first time under a scholarship). After completing his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2004 and Master of Business Administration in 2006, from 2011 he served as President of the Engineer Alumni Association until 2013 and has been a member of the GWAA Executive Committee since its inception in 2019. served as a member of the association.

“During that time, much of my education was funded by scholarships and sponsorships and endowments, so I always felt it was important to be actively involved in the university community. However, after graduating, I participated in volunteer activities.”

He said the focus is on working with students and helping administrators consult with alumni leaders. He said he feels drawn to these priorities. Because he’s likely to accomplish them during his short one-year term, even if he doesn’t have a long-term agenda that spans the two-year presidency.

“I’ve looked at how long I have to serve and the range of time things take. I want to focus on what I can do in a timely and impactful way,” he said.

Alexander said one of his goals is to help raise funds for student organizations and ensure they have alumni and expert speakers for student events. He said requirements like paid room reservations for student-run events can “hinder” student organizations, especially if they don’t have the same funding avenues as alumni and academic programs.

“There are functional, process-related barriers that prevent us from doing the simple act of bringing people together for a common purpose,” he said.

Alexander spent the first few months of his term in meetings with senior management to discuss the university and the GWAA’s agenda for the upcoming academic year. He said some officials were willing to “explore” his ideas to free up more financial resources for the student and alumni communities.

Alexander said his role on the presidential selection committee, which was organized in April, will also help him influence long-term changes at the university. During his time there, he said he learned how major government surveys work and questioned their structure, including limiting applicants to those with PhDs.

Of GW’s 15 presidents since the turn of the 19th century, 6 have received Ph.D. degrees, and the remaining 9 have equivalent Ph.D., law or honorary degrees.

“I probably embody rejecting the idea of, ‘This is how it’s always been done. Okay, so keep doing it this way,'” he said. “I want to go somewhere else and be able to do things differently. But I’ve never been a stingy Violet, and I’ve always been free to express my opinion.”

Although he has never participated in the president’s survey, he has been able to ask questions of administrators based on conversations with campus leaders to represent some of the interests of students and faculty, not just alumni. I said I can.

“I think being willing to have those conversations and challenge concepts is an important and healthy part of any process,” he said.

This article appeared in the August 29, 2022 issue of Hatchet.