Alumni Sail, Fly Away With Alma Mater

As Columbia students anticipate spring break by filling their suitcases with sunscreen for Acapulco, work gloves for their volunteer trip in New Orleans, or the textbooks needed to work on their thesis, Columbia alumni prepare for vacations of their own—to their alma mater.

As part of the Alumni Travel Study Program, conducted by University Development and Alumni Relations, alumni have the opportunity to “combine learning and pleasure through domestic and international travel,” according to the UDAR Web site. The travel programs range from “Around the World by Private Jet” to “Journey of Odysseus” which traces Odysseus’ path from Athens to Ithaca.

“We touch base in every continent,” said Anthony Roman, UDAR Director of Operations.

“There are two value-added components to traveling through our program. One is the intellectual one. A chance to have two or three lectures,” Roman said. “The second value added is the camaraderie.”

The majority of travelers, according to Roman, are retired alumni. “They have time to take this kind of leisure travel. These trips are one to two weeks. This isn’t a weekend getaway kind of thing,” he said.

Liz Legatt, BC ’72, and her husband Alan, SEAS ’72, said that they had finally reached a point in their lives when they had time to travel with Columbia. “We kept getting mailings for many years. But for this reason or that reason we couldn’t go,” Liz said. “I was working as an obstetrician and a gynecologist. ... I don’t have night call anymore, so I have more time available.”

The Legatts will be attending the “Waterways of Russia” trip with Slavic studies professor Rebecca Stanton. Liz said she and her husband were drawn to this trip in particular because “Russia is not a country that we would feel comfortable traveling to on our own.”

But as programs coordinate lodging, dining, museum entrance passes, as well as gratuity for all services, these trips come with hefty price tags.

For the “Southern Africa’s Great Rail Journey,” prices range from $10,450 to $12,450 per person, depending on the style of suite. The rate excludes international and domestic airfares and on-tour flights within southern Africa.

“A few of our luxury trips are well over $10,000 a person,” said Roman. “But the vast majority of the trips fall in a midrange cost,” which Roman described as $3,000 to $7,000 a person. The lowest costing trip was $1,650 a person to Vietnam and Cambodia. But even on this trip, if alumni wanted more luxurious living accommodations they could pay upwards of $8,000 per person.

While expensive, the program has continued to attract a large range of participants. In 2007, there were 379 travelers on 34 different programs and, according to Roman, 338 alumni have confirmed bookings with 39 programs this year.

But more than an extended vacation, the trips are meant to be learning opportunities, as participants often travel with experts in the region,
“The trip asks you to do some reading ahead of time,” Liz said. “It’s a bit onerous. I feel like I was back at Barnard taking a course. Each reading has hundreds of pages.”
Despite the sometimes-daunting assignments, alumni say that they form a stronger relationship with the University after their trip.

“I can’t equivocally say that they [alumni] are inspired to donate more,” Roman said. “I do feel safe to say that this is one of those unique ways of keeping people connected to Columbia. The goal is to make people feel good about Columbia. We hope it leads to more donations.”

keren.daskin@columbiaspectator.com.