Alumni Association of the University of Michigan

From the very beginning, graduates of the University of Michigan have wanted to stay connected to their esteemed alma mater and each other. Upon its first commencement, on Aug. 6, 1845, a graduating class of 11 immediately formed a Society of the Alumni, whose goal was to invite an orator and poet for the next annual meeting.

Through the rest of the 1800s, the alumni body continued to grow and stay active, although usually in an unstructured way. In 1868, the first regional alumni meeting took place in Chicago, followed by others in San Francisco and Japan.

By 1892, there were 11,449 alumni of the University of Michigan, with individual alumni societies for graduates of LSA, law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and homeopathic medicine. Feeling disjointed, representatives from these six societies met in the old chapel in University Hall on June 30, 1897, and voted to consolidate into one unified alumni organization. That vote founded the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.