Winter 2009

In an effort to reach and involve more Miami alumni, the university is launching a networking effort unprecedented in higher education.

When attorney John Peck `66 attended Miami University, some of his most important lessons learned came not from the classroom but during late-night discussions in the Beta house.

“We would sit up on Friday and Saturday nights arguing and chatting about every topic under the sun,” Peck recalls. “The more diverse the group was in terms of geography and economic background, the better the discussion. I didn’t win a lot of those arguments, but getting to know my fellow students and learning to understand their perceptions was a tremendous experience for me.”

As national volunteer coordinator for the Bicentennial Student Center (BSC) campaign, Peck is working to ensure future Miami students have those same opportunities to engage and learn from one another. A former trustee whose great grandfather attended Old Miami, Peck is not alone in the effort to unite Miami’s alumni behind this focal point of the Miami Experience.

Nearly 125 Miami alumni and students gathered during Homecoming Weekend for a volunteer training event, introducing participants to the BSC itself, Miami’s history of student engagement, and the innovative fundraising effort being used to accomplish this key element of Miami’s future success. Featured speakers included Peck, President David Hodge and Mrs. Valerie Hodge, student body president Mike Scott, and Armstrong Professor Glenn Platt.

Peck, whose son Stephen is a Miami sophomore, knows first-hand that many student needs, including those for meeting and study spaces, 24/7 student services, and dining and entertainment options, are not being met within current campus facilities. But his excitement for the campaign stems not just from the BSC itself but also from what its unprecedented fundraising effort means for Miami’s future.

At the heart of Miami’s plan to build the BSC using private gifts – largely from alumni – is the need to grow the percentage of alumni who support the university on an annual basis. In the last fiscal year, 18 percent of Miami’s more than 140,000 undergraduate alumni financially supported the university.

“When I talk with Miami alumni, probably 80 percent have terrific memories of Miami and what it’s meant to them,” said Peck. “But the number of alumni who actually give back is far less than I would expect. Since the experience meant so much to them, I expect they will want to participate.”

In an effort to reach and involve more Miami alumni, the university is launching a networking effort unprecedented in higher education.

The campaign supporting the BSC is designed to foster that participation. Beginning in January 2009, alumni are investing themselves personally through a networking effort uniting thousands of their fellow alumni. They also are investing financially, showing how strength in numbers allows smaller gifts to yield big results. Symbolic of the campaign is the number 71809, which represents at least one-half of Miami’s undergraduate alumni contributing to the BSC project in honor of Miami’s Bicentennial.

“I often hear people refer to major gifts made by our most generous benefactors and downplay the impact of their own modest gifts,” said President Hodge. “By itself, $200 may not be much. But if half Miami’s Oxford campus alumni give just $1 for each year of our university’s history and commit to that for three years, we will build a student center that will be the focal point for future generations of Miami students.”

In an effort to reach and involve more Miami alumni, the university is launching a networking effort unprecedented in higher education. An initial group of 500 alumni volunteers, called the ‘Tag Team,’ will reach out to their fellow alumni and secure at least

10 pledges to the BSC. They also will encourage other alumni to become involved and ‘tag’ 10 friends of their own, allowing the campaign’s impact to grow exponentially.

Miami’s Division of University Advancement is supporting the effort with an online resource that will assist volunteers in locating classmates and friends. It also will track each volunteer’s progress and allow volunteers to accumulate points toward a variety of recognitions.

Additionally, all alumni who contribute at least $200 to the campaign will be permanently recognize within the completed BSC, reminding future generations of Miamians of what those who came before made possible. Donors of at least $200 also will receive a set of three unique Miami luggage tags, so Miamians are better able to identify one another in destinations around the world.

According to Peck, the real reward will be what the campaign means to the university’s future.

“All of us were profoundly impacted by our ‘Miami Experience,’ and we want to ensure that current and future generations of bright Miami students have the same opportunities to get an outstanding undergraduate education,” Peck said. “The Miami University Campaign For Love and Honor and the campaign for the Bicentennial Student Center are only the beginning of what we are setting in motion for the future of our university.”