A Strong Team Moves Forward:

The Year in University Relations

By John L. Heyl
Vice President for University Relations

I could not begin this report without extending a special thanks to Ron Baird, who filled in as acting vice president for university relations for a good part of the past academic year. While continuing to also perform his duties as director of corporate relations, Ron moved the entire office forward on all fronts. It was with a great deal of regret, but also with the recognition that no one was more deserving, that we in University Relations said farewell to Ron this past May as he moved to Washington, D.C., to become director of the Sea Grant Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Many of the efforts of the Office of University Relations during the past 12 months have been directed at strengthening the office's infrastructure. Moving the Alumni Office under the umbrella of University Relations has permitted us to better allocate resources and to increase our services to alumni and other constituencies. As part of this move, we created a new team of Annual Fund personnel that, for the first time, enables us to bring together into one cohesive unit the Alumni Fund, the Parents Fund and two new funds: the Friends Fund and the Business and Industry Fund.

In response to a request from the Alumni Association and the Alumni Fund Board, and recognizing the importance of the work of both of these groups, the university underscored its commitment to these areas by adding personnel. This has permitted the Alumni Affairs Office to reinvigorate its activities for students through the Student Alumni Society and to develop such new programs as the Alumni Gateway on WPI's World Wide Web site. The Gateway offers an online alumni directory, access to job listings, and class home pages. Likewise, the Alumni Fund has strengthened its commitment to young alumni through a more active "GOLD" (graduates of the last decade) program and has actively begun to re-establish the Class Agents Program.

The efforts of the Alumni Fund this past year yielded record results. According to Anne M. McPartland Dodd '75, chair of the Alumni Fund Board, the fund "crushed" its 1995-96 goal of $2.25 million, raising $2,630,230, plus $314,489 in matching gifts (the total exceeded the record of $2.25 million set in 1994). Incidentally, the Fund Board has set an ambitious target of $3.2 million for the current fund year; the board also hopes to see the participation rate for the fund rise from 25 percent in 1995-96 to 30 percent in 1996-97.

The extraordinary gifts of two anniversary classes were important contributors to the fund's success. At Reunion in 1996, President Edward Parrish, on behalf of the university, accepted two gifts, each in excess of $1 million. The Class of 1946 raised an amazing $1,430,000, a total that represented the participation of 58 percent of the class. The unrestricted portion will go toward the planned campus center. The class of 1956 raised $753,304; an anonymous class member pledged to match the total, bringing the final tally to $1,546,162. Nearly half of the unrestricted portion will go toward the West Street pedestrian plaza; the balance will fund a new multimedia computer laboratory. (Anniversary class gifts are raised over a three-year period, so only a portion of the gifts was actually counted in this year's fund total. Both class gifts included interest and corporate matching gifts.)

The President's Advisory Council also had a banner year. The 270 members of the PAC - a group of alumni, parents and friends who make yearly gifts of $1,500 - contributed over $2 million, or some 78 percent of the Alumni Fund total. Both of these figures represent new records. During the current year, WPI is observing the 25th anniversary of the founding of this most generous group.

A major new initiative of our office is to increase the university's visibility and recognition. We have developed a marketing strategy through which we will focus our energies on a limited number of specific target markets. In a parallel effort, we will work to place WPI before audiences when and where our message will not be drowned out by the marketing programs of other competing institutions. We are fortunate to have received both guidance and financial support from a number of trustees; with that support, we have hired PepperCom, a public relations firm, to work with us in this undertaking, which we hope will help WPI achieve a level of recognition equal to its superb quality.

Preparations are also under way for a new capital campaign. While still in the early planning stages, it is already clear that this fund drive will be a volunteer effort of significant proportions. Seeking funds for goals that are linked directly to needs developed through a communitywide strategic planning effort (see page 16), the campaign will reach out to all alumni and friends of WPI. Trustees and other especially close friends will begin to solicit each other in the spring. Simultaneously, we will begin to organize class committees for an official major campaign launch, planned for the spring of 1998.

Volunteers Make the Difference

As hard as we work, the staff of the Office of University Relations cannot do the entire job of advancing the mission of WPI, raising resources to assure its continued growth and development, and serving the needs of our alumni. We depend on the energy, skills, knowledge and enthusiasm of a remarkable team of volunteers, including the men and women who serve on the Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association, the Alumni Council, the many Alumni Association working committees, and the Alumni Fund Board. Listed below are just a few of the leaders of the university's many volunteer boards and committees:

Anne M. McPartland Dodd '75 Chair, Alumni Fund Board

Patricia A. Graham Flaherty '75 Chair, Alumni Survey Committee

Peter H. Horstmann '55 Vice Chair, WPI Board of Trustees

August C. Kellerman '46 Chair, Class of 1946 50th Anniversary Gift Committee

Allen H. Levesque '59 President, WPI Alumni Association

Robert B. Maynard Jr. '63 Chair, WPI Alumni Association Master Plan Committee

Peter D. McDermott '73 Alumni Liaison, WPI Venture Forum

Samuel W. Mencow '37 Chair, Alumni Publications Committee

Patrick T. Moran '65 Chair, Class Boards of Directors

John M. Nelson Chair, WPI Board of Trustees

Henry W. Nowick '57 Chair, President's Advisory Council

Roger N. Perry Jr. '45 President, Tech Old Timers

Harry W. Tenney Jr. '56 Chair, Class of 1956 40th Anniversary Gift Committee

Harlan B. Williams '50 Chair, Alumni Online Service

Ronald L. Zarrella '71 Vice Chair, WPI Board of Trustees