NEWS ARCHIVE

CENTRE OF ADVANCEMENT REPORT 2012

SUBJECT:      ADVANCEMENT CENTRE REPORT OF ACTIVITIES AS AT END OF THE YEAR 2012

The year started with much expectations and plans which the Centre parkaged in form of work plan for the office and forwarded to the Management for approval. The plan included Trade Fair/Seminar for automobile Industry, Food and Beverages Industry, Construction/Building and student empowerment among others.

The following are the activities carried out by Advancement Centre in 2012.

Activities

The Board of Schools were sensitized on volunteering and University development and their roles and activities as senior Corporate Volunteers. This was done through our “meet and greet”.  The Schools were visited and interaction held with their members.  

1.  The Board members agreed to work with the Advancement Centre in the following areas:

  1. Members Providing names and addresses of ex-students, Philanthropist, Professional colleagues and Alumni of high net worth.
  2. Linking up and collaborating with Advancement centre in organizing home coming event for their Alumni on School Course basis. So far only the School of Sciences had held such programme.   The School held the first home coming (re-union) for their ex-students on 16th November, 2012 and the programme was a success.

2.  Donations from Philanthropist:

Advancement Centre reached many prospective philanthropists for donation through direct contact, mail internet and referred lead, some donations were received including:

 

 

i.        A Car from an Alumnus (Mr. Tunde Babalola of First Deep water discovery Ltd. Lagos).

ii.      Other Alumni of the University, friends of the University and Corporate Organization pledged severally during the Hall of Fame event organized on 23rd November 2012 during the 2012 Convocation Week.  Some of them have sent in their Cheques including  Sadiq Obanoyan, Engr. Jide Akinyede, Engr. Tunde Babalola, Pastor Gbenga Gbarada, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, Prof. T.A.M Adeniyi, Prof. J.O.Agbede, Dr. Deji Fasuyi, Dr. B.K.Alese,Eng. Ajo Baale, Mr. Moses Adesulu and Prof. Enobong Okoko. Others are Hon. Akinola Sikiru, Obagbemi Olugbenga Akinfolarin

iii.     During the FUTA Greening, 2012 the (2) two awardees, Barr. Adedipe Ifedayo Adams (SAN) and Mr. Pius Ayodele donated to the University.

3.          Cultivation of prospective donors (Corporate organizations) those who we had used in the past               whom we are still looking forward to use further in the future were visited with hampers for the Christmas season such as Gen. Yakubu. Gowon, Chief Ernest Shonekan, Alhaji  (Dr.) Bamanga Turkur, Engr. Tunde Babalola, Mr. Segun Aina.  

4.   i.       Linkages & Collaborations with other Institutions: Advancement Centre designed Collaboration initiative form and sent to all Schools for their use whenever any member of staff is travelling      abroad for Conference, Workshop, Training and seminars.

  ii.  Some of the collaboration agreement had expired and efforts are being made to revalidate them.

5.  Alumni Issue

i.    The Director of Advancement Centre resumed on 1st June 2012. She visited the Alumni Association National Office at Obakekere on 19th June 2012 and held a meeting with the National President of the FUTA Alumni Association and his executive members on various issues such as sharing of Bio-data and database of Alumni and creation of back up for these data.

      ii      Abuja branch organized a special programme in honour of the new Vice Chancellor Prof. Adebiyi Daramola on 15th December, 2012.  The event took place at the Nicon Luxury hotel, Abuja.

iii.   The Association (FUTA Alumni) held the annual meeting and lecture during the convocation week but did not conduct election for a new set of executives.   The President explained that they decided to shift the election because of the many activities that usually come up the same day which may not allow proper handling of the election.

          However, at their meeting held on that 22nd November, 2012, the house unanimously decided to dissolve the National executives, and set up interim executives to run the affairs of the association till year 2013 Convocation. The Interim Committee is led by Chairman is Chief Victor Ifezue.

  iv. The 1st meeting or re-union of FUTA Alumni in diaspora was          held in United Kingdom on August 25, 2012 with good number of participant from Europe, America, Nigeria and other Countries.

 

6.        Advancement Board Meetings:

          The Advancement Board meetings were held on 3rd of May, 2012, 9th August, 2012 and 6th November       2012.  The first and second meetings were held in the University while the third one was held at Abuja.

 Many issues discussed at those meetings and various decisions taken were communicated to the                     University Management appropriately.

7.    FUTA Greening programme

       The programme was held on 14th August 2012 during which two (2) notable Nigerians were honoured by the University with “greening ambassador” in the person of Mr. Pius Olaiya  Ayodele and Barr. Ifedayo Adams Adedipe (SAN).

8.   Hall of Fame Event

          Advancement Centre organized a programme tagged “Alumni Hall of fame”  to appreciate the past well behaved Student Union Presidents and those who had carried FUTA barner high in their various endeavour and those that have contributed to the development of FUTA at one time or the other.

The programme was held on 23rd November 2012 during the convocation week.  It was also another way of commemorating the 30th anniversary of FUTA’s existence and 25th anniversary of the first set of graduand.  It brought together the old and the new Alumni in a special re-union.

The occasion enabled many of the ex-students to visit their ‘alma mata’ again since they left the University many years ago.

9 Data base:

The statistical data of Students who graduated from FUTA since inception is being compiled.  Also the data on all students that graduated from FUTA per School and Department are being collected.

              Future Plans

  1. Meet and Greet is a continuous sensitization programme.  All Schools would be visited to carry them along on University volunteering when holding the Board of Studies meeting in February and March 2013. 

Registry staff will also be visited during one of their statutory meetings.

  1. Request for donation of major gift is also a continuous duty like those we have been cultivating for building or facilities for the University
  2. Prospects would be sent to some corporate organization for major gifts, while Director would continue to sign letters for onward transmission to prospects.
  3. Linkages and Collaboration are continuous activities: Letters and draft of MOU would be e-mailed to more Universities/institutions both in Nigeria and abroad while follow-up phone call would be made to the institutions already contacted.
  4. We shall also encourage Schools concern to utilize the MOU maximally as we visit them from time to time.
  5. Alumni matters is a continuous and progressive activity; many Alumni working and residing in all parts of the country and outside the country would be reached for their support and also ensure that more branches of Alumni are inaugurated this coming year.
  6. The automobile Tradefair which was planned in 2012 will be held in May 2013 with the support of the Management and the commitment of the Committee members as to ensure that the programme is held successfully.  Contact had earlier been made with some automobile Companies such as Elizade Nig. Ltd, Toyoya, Honda place, CFAO, KIA Motors and R.T. Briscoe among others..

 

Finally, we propose a special programme of Empowerment Seminar for final year students and seminar for all academic staff on Collaborations and Linkages.

 

Conclusion:

 

On behalf of all of us at the University Advancement Centre, I use this medium to express our appreciation to the University Management for attending to our requests otherwise the moderate success we recorded in the Centre would not have been possible.  We are deeply appreciative.

 

Thank you Sir.  

 

             Dr. (Mrs.) E. F. Oyebade, mni