Matching gift challenge Why I give

We know that you, our CS alumni, are strong and capable individuals—nearly 3,000 all over the world who are innovating, creating, and leading in a wide range of career pursuits. Although different in age and location, you share a common bond that helped to shape who you are today. And together with the dedicated CS faculty and staff, we are a Community. Now that we’re 50 years old, we think it is time we took on the task of making the CS Community more connected, stronger, and more relevant for our alumni. There are some easy ways for you to help us build our CS Community into the best it can be. Please consider one or all of the following ways you can help: 1. Share your email address. As of this writing, we are missing 900 alumni e-mail addresses. Please submit or update your email address so that we can keep you up-to-date with CS news and events. www.cs.umass.edu/forms/emailaddress-form. 2. Attend a CS alumni event. Reminisce with old friends, catch up with faculty and make new connections. Upcoming events include our Sixth Annual Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Awards Banquet on May 2, 2014 (www.cs.umass.edu/oaa2014) and alumni socials planned for the east and west (CA Bay area) coasts. 3. Give us news and updates about your career and life to be included in Significant Bits. You can send them to Jean Joyce at [email protected]. And finally, 4. Donate in any amount to CS. We know it’s annoying to be asked for money. We know you probably get asked A LOT. But it really is important that you consider giving to CS. In order for us to remain competitive, we should be offering more scholarships to CS students. And, one of the factors used in determining our School’s annual ranking is the Alumni Participation Rate (APR). The more alumni who donate, the higher the APR. The value of your CS degree increases when UMass and CS achieve high rankings. Distinguished Professor Jim Kurose, chair of the CS 50th celebration committee, said it best: “Every contribution really is valued. When faculty and staff look through our list of donors in each issue of Significant Bits (and we do), it’s really great to see the names of students we taught or knew. It tells us that they really value and appreciate their time with us. It means a lot to us and to UMass Amherst.” No matter how large or how small, every single gift to CS is appreciated and put to good use. Here is why one CS alum chose to give... in the mid-eighties, while taking a graduate course under Prof. Krithivasan Ramamritham, I read an IBM 1979 technical report, “Notes on Database Operating Systems” – precursor to the bible on Transaction Processing. Since then I’ve been hooked on building database systems. Later, at DEC and Microsoft, I was fortunate to get to know Jim Gray. As many of you know, he was lost at sea in 2007. I set up the Jim Gray Scholarship at UMass Amherst to support first-year CS graduate students pursuing systems research. I did it because I want to encourage the next generation to join our field and keep it thriving. But I also did it because I want to honor and remember the sage of our science. thanks to CS alum Steve Vinter (Ph.D. ’85), your gift to Computer Science during our 50th anniversary year will be doubled! He has agreed to match gifts made before July 1, 2014 (up to $50,000) in order to encourage fellow alumni to donate. “Now is the time YOU can help us make our wonderful school an even greater place,” says Vinter. “Get involved! Let’s join together and build the best foundation for our community that we can.”