Cycling UK Forum

I left university over 32 years ago and have never been back to it since the day in June 79 when I went to find out my degree grade. Since that day there has been no contact between it and me.

Yesterday I received a glossy mag entitled ' ************ Alumni' delivered to my current address which is about the tenth address I've had since I was a student.

How do they know where I am?

It's worth their while to find out as given the time since you left they probably believe that you are now well off and able to make donations to your beloved Alma Marta. I get begging letters from them all of the time for donations (even when I was still a student - doing post grads).

.

Someome grassed me up to my old place, and they sent me stuff for years. Thankfully it's stopped now. Perhaps they think I'm dead! (No, I haven't returned their bumph marked "deceased".)

Towards the end of last year, I had contact with several organisations about my elderly mother: Carers UK; Leeds City Council; NHS; and the DHSS. Within a few days she had received personally addressed, unsolicited mail from two national organisations running care homes. Last week, she received an unsolicited, personally addressed brochure + application form for a pre-paid funeral plan (she is now 92) from Age UK. This all raises similar questions in my mind to those of the OP. Yesterday, she received some more stuff from Age UK but a different department, and this was only advice to the elderly on how to keep warm eat well, etc. (No insidious, camouflaged advertising) It explained that the information had been prepared by Age UK but addressed by the DHSS so Age UK had received no personal info from there, in respect of that mailing.

In fact, for some years, all my mother's mail has come c/o my address, rather than hers. The only exception is Leeds City Council because she receives Housing and Council Tax Benefits so they are specific to her address and I suppose it's a way of confirming she still lives there.

I wish I could see an innocent explanation.

I cut the middle man out and didn't go to Uni

Well. Somebody had to stay and work to pay for the rest of us.

yep, cheers reohn - your abstinence meant that I could go twice

When I left Glasgow Uni in 1959 I was a graduate. Somewhere in the intervening years I have become an Alumnus. Preseumably they think I am worth more this way! Little do they know.

A what?
An almunus?

alumnus |əˈləmnəs|
noun ( pl. -ni |-nī; -nē|)
a graduate or former student, esp. male, of a particular school, college, or university : a Harvard alumnus.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin, ‘nursling, pupil,’ from alere ‘nourish.’
USAGE In the singular, alumnus nearly always means a male, but the plural alumni usually refers to graduates or former students of either sex. See also alumna .

I'm glad I never went to Uni. I couldn't stand being called an almunus. Sounds rude.

Mick F wrote:A what?
An almunus?

alumnus |əˈləmnəs|
noun ( pl. -ni |-nī; -nē|)
a graduate or former student, esp. male, of a particular school, college, or university : a Harvard alumnus.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin, ‘nursling, pupil,’ from alere ‘nourish.’
USAGE In the singular, alumnus nearly always means a male, but the plural alumni usually refers to graduates or former students of either sex. See also alumna .

I'm glad I never went to Uni. I couldn't stand being called an almunus. Sounds rude.

Sounds like something that'd frighten the life out of me if a doctor told me I was one,and if a priest told me I'd probably think needed exorcising

PS theres a lot more to this University lark than I expected,makes me feel glad I paid for someone else to go in my place,i thought I had it tough toiling down the mines

Mick F wrote: ... from Latin, ‘nursling, pupil,’ from alere ‘nourish.’ ... I couldn't stand being called an almunus. Sounds rude.

Depending on what you find rude, it might be because afaik, "nursling" is a bit of a circumlocution there (presumably introduced by some Victorian schoolmaster or dame.) I suspect we've acquired alumnus in the academic usage from the US. I think "Alma Mater" referring to a graduate's university came by the same route. Although dictionaries primly translate this as "benign mother," I suspect that that Roman geezer would have used it to mean "wet nurse."

What ever is the world coming to?

I graduated in 1972 and the terms "alumnus" and "alma mater" were common - we never thought anything about it. It is more likely that the US picked these up from the ancient European universities.

Nope. It's American.

http://www.answers.com/topic/alumnus-and-alma-mater

According to the OED, the diarist John Evelyn used the term "alumni" in 1645. However the first appearance of "alma mater" on this side of the pond is not until 1803, by Walter Scott.

Your link shows that the Americans used both expressions for the first time in 1696 - so honours are even!