Alumni are one of the main elements for a university since they are in internal party working and providing recommendation as well as contribution to their alma mater. It is a must for a university to intertwine good relationship with the students if the university is eager to have progressive steps to confront global challenges.

It underlies Communication Sciences (IK) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) to coin Communication Science Alumni Association (KIKO UMY). The initiation was stated by Jupiter Rahadiansyah Mundung, a coordinator of KIKO when visiting IK of UMY on Monday afternoon (16/11). “In September, alumni of IK of UMY of batch 2000 reunited in Yogyakarta. The reunion was attended by dozens of alumni from Solo, Semarang, Surabaya, Batam, Makassar, Lampung, Banjarmasih, Jakarta, Cirebon, and Yogyakarta. We proposed to create KIKO as our contribution to this alma mater,” told Jupiter.

Jupiter conveyed that the association is expected to become a media to intertwine relationship among alumni, particularly IK’s alumni of batch 2000. “Most the alumni only communicated through social media and groups. It will be better to have face-to-face communication to discuss anything like personal or family issues, what to dedicate to this university or public,” he asserted.

Deputy Head of IK of UMY Haryadi Arief Nuur Rasyid, S.IP., M.Sc. representing the department welcomed the notion well. Haryadi expressed that the momentum of alumni association establishment will intertwine relationship among alumni, lecturers, and department party. “The association is expected to strengthen kinship between alumni and the department. I hope that the alumni can contribute their ideas to develop the department well,” he wished.

One of the other alumni Satria Oetami said that one of the communication ways of alumni, especially 2000, is conducting a monthly meeting. They also often visit the other alumni facing difficulties and provide aids for them. “May a lot of alumni join the association and it is expected that there will be regular meetings like reunion and other activities,” he expected.

The first step of KIKO is conducting regular reunion, and persuading other alumni to join the association. Although the association was dominated by batch 2000, KIKO believed that the number of members from various batch will escalate so that they can evolve their alma mater.