UCC national alumni appeals to past students to join association

Cape Coast, Feb. 18, GNA - The national president of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Alumni Association, Professor Dominic Kuupole on Friday expressed disappointment about the association not gotten the desired patronage and this is adversely affecting its activities.

According to him even though the university had produced 50,000 people with degrees and non-degree programmes since its establishment some 42 years ago, only an estimated 500 people have registered with the association nationwide and are fully participating in its programmes and activities.

He regretted that many of the eligible alumni are apathetic towards the activities of the association and "erroneously believe that on completion of their programmes of study, they do not belong to the UCC family".

Prof. Kuupole said, this had affected its activities so much that, work on a building complex project being constructed by the association, which started in 2003, had come to a standstill, due to lack of funds.

The building complex is expected to have a 51 shared and 12 self-contained bedrooms hostel, offices, a conference hall, porter's lodge reception and washrooms on completion and that about seven to ten billion cedis was needed for the project.

Professor Kuupole said apart from the UCC chapter as well as the alumni in the police service and some few others from other departments who are regularly contributing, most of the members are apathetic towards it.

He said a decision made by the association during its annual general meeting in 2002 indicated that each alumnus is expected to contribute one per cent of his/her basic salary to finance the project and urged all members to comply.

"We might have had some bitter experiences when we were students in the university. Life is full of sweet and bitter experiences. We therefore need to remember our sweet experiences and try to forget the bitter ones", he said and appealed to all alumni to get involved and make the association a vibrant one.

He also appealed to the public and organisations to assist them to complete the project to help ease the accommodation problem on campus. The Pro-Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Kobena Yankson reminded the alumni that they could derive maximum benefits from such associations and urged people to be grateful and appreciative of the university, which has make them what you are.