The Adams Alumni Center on the Kansas University campus, pictured in July 2009.

The Kansas University Alumni Association has a plan for rocketing KU Student Alumni Association membership up to around 19,000: buy four-year memberships for all incoming freshmen.

By getting more Jayhawks involved as students, the Alumni Association hopes to provide them an opportunity to plug in and also, ultimately, to strengthen KU’s alumni network for the long haul.

“We want to support the university’s goal of improving retention, progression and graduation,” Alumni Association president Heath Peterson said. “One of the ways we can do that is create a stronger sense of belonging amongst the student body.

“Higher-impact engagement through Student Alumni Association will drive longer-term KU loyalty, which we hope evolves into alumni advocacy, service, membership in the Alumni Association, philanthropy — supporting all areas of KU — and them sending future children to the university.”

The Student Alumni Association currently has about 1,400 members. Membership costs $25 a year, or $75 for a four-year membership, and students usually sign up when they make their selections for optional campus fees, said Jennifer Jackson Sanner, the Alumni Association’s senior vice president for strategic communications and advocacy.

With the addition of the incoming fall 2016 freshman class, membership is expected to reach about 5,400, Sanner said.

The Alumni Association plans to continue providing gift memberships for the next three incoming classes so that by fall 2019, all KU undergraduates will be members of Student Alumni Association, Sanner said. KU currently has more than 19,000 undergraduates.

The Alumni Association will evaluate the effectiveness of the expanded Student Alumni Association program as it rolls out, but won’t begin to see the long-term impact of the investment until the class of 2020 graduates, Sanner said. She said she expects the program to be fully evaluated at that point or soon after.

To pay for all those new memberships, KU Alumni Association is teaming up with KU Endowment, which also will be involved in evaluating the program going forward.

“Our mission is very similar,” Peterson said of the fellow KU organization. “We’re both trying to really strengthen KU.”

Peterson called the Student Alumni Association “the premier networking organization for students on the KU campus.”

Members participate in community service projects, hospitality events during finals week, professional development programs put on with the KU Career Center, networking nights with professionals in different industries, and events with KU Alumni Association members.

The Kansas University Alumni Association launched an app in May and plans to launch one just for students in August, during Hawk Week.

The KU Alumni Association will maintain its recent graduate program, also in partnership with KU Endowment. That program pays for one year of Alumni Association memberships for new graduates. Sanner said the recent graduates also have a limited-time offer to purchase an annual or life membership for half-price.

Peterson said the Alumni Association’s engagement for Jayhawks 45 and older has been strong.

But he said the organization is hoping to work on more programs that meet younger Jayhawks at their “life stage.”

“We’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with students,” Peterson said, “and more importantly than that, connect students to alumni who have a tremendous amount of professional experience and wisdom to impart on them as mentors, and also help them build their network to life after KU.”