It’s Founders’ Day here in Madison, commemorating the anniversary of UW-Madison’s first class, held February 5, 1849. I celebrated with a slice of cake given to me by a representative of the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Pretty tasty! You’re probably not in a position to be given a piece of cake, so if you want to celebrate Founders’ Day, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands.

Luckily, the WAA has suggestions for you. I would imagine that most of you will need to start with the third suggestion: Start an alumni club. Don't worry if you're not a UW-Madison alum; you're starting the club, so you can make sure that's not a requirement.

Now that established your club, you can hold a Founders' Day Meeting. The Alumni Association suggests you use your Founders' Day Meeting to get clearer picture of University's activities in teaching, research, and public service and strengthen your alumni club. Holding a meeting is a great way to strengthen the club!

Once the meeting is over, you can move on to the really important suggestions: support the University of Wisconsin Foundation Campaign and the Frank O. Holt Memorial Scholarship Fund. UW-Madison loves being given money! And they're really good at it. In fiscal year 2012, the Research and Sponsored Programs brought in $1.17 billion in extramural support.

That doesn't mean they don't want your money too. Indeed, if you looked carefully at the list of suggestions, you'll see that their goal in offering suggestions for Founders' Day was to make it "a productive day for the University of Wisconsin."

So happy Founders' Day! Now pony up the dough.