The Seventies – The Quiet Evolution

At the dawn of the seventies, there was a quiet evolution in the Alumnae Association that prompted revolutionary results. At the heels of the Civil Rights era, the Alumnae Association did some soul searching as to what its role relative to the College would be in the future. As an organization that had been born and nurtured by the College, was it now time to grow up as a self-governing entity? What face would be presented? What were the needs of the Association and the College at this juncture.

A new organizational plan was adopted which called for middle managers who would communicate with the fast-growing clubs and provide support to the clubs with fundraising, student recruitment and other college initiatives. A regional structure was adopted similar to the sorority model where clubs were assigned to a region and supervised by a regional coordinator who monitored the health of each assigned club. The first regional meetings began in 1972 with the first Southeast regional in Albany, Georgia and the Great Lakes Regional in Detroit, Michigan.

The Alumnae Association was no longer arranged simply as a grouping of independently operating clubs but had evolved into a whole - a network of clubs that were responsible to and for the parent organization who in turn was responsible to and for Spelman College.