They also tout the Miami Mergers ― a nickname for alumni who marry fellow Miami graduates.
“It’s absolutely a big deal,” said Miami spokesman Ray Mock. “We have nearly 14,000 couples.”
The university, which has an undergraduate enrollment of about 15,500, has been keeping tabs on alums who marry since the early ’70s. The alumni office sends them Valentine’s Day cards every year and highlights the matches in university publications. In 2009, Miami organized a vow-renewal ceremony for 1,087 couples that set a Guinness World Record. In addition to inviting Miami Mergers, the university included their families and Miami graduates who were not married to other alums.
“It’s tied to wanting our graduates to maintain a relationship with the university,” Mock said. “One of the biggest challenges for alumni relations is trying to find more ways to engage alumni in the life of an institution.”
Many colleges around the country collect photos, invite couples to share their stories online and organize events for them. Fostering those connections makes a lot of sense, said Don Fellows, CEO of Marts & Lundy, a fundraising consulting firm in New Jersey: Involved alumni will offer networking help to students, volunteer their time and, hopefully, donate money.
“If you have both partners in a relationship that graduated from the same university, you have a better chance of getting gifts and getting bigger gifts over time,” Fellows said.
