<P> Alma mater (Latin: alma "nourishing / kind", mater "mother"; pl . (rarely used) almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college . In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, or a song or hymn associated with a school . The phrase is variously translated as "nourishing mother", "nursing mother", or "fostering mother", suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students . Fine arts will often depict educational institutions using a robed woman as a visual metaphor . </P> <P> Before its modern usage, Alma mater was an honorific title for various Latin mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and later in Catholicism for the Virgin Mary . It entered academic usage when the University of Bologna adopted the motto "Alma Mater Studiorum" ("nurturing mother of studies"), which describes its heritage as the oldest operating university in the Western world . It is related to alumnus, a term used for a university graduate that literally means a "nursling" or "one who is nourished". </P>

Do you have to graduate to have an alma mater