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Alumni facility is “center” of our success

Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center is indicative of progress in Alumni Relations.

1996 TCU Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center dedication

At the 1996 dedication of the Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center, donors enjoy the bubbling of the Blackmon-Mooring Fountain. About 400 people attended the event. (Photo by Linda Kaye)

Alumni facility is “center” of our success

Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center is indicative of progress in Alumni Relations.

The opening of the Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center is a watershed in the history of TCU alumni and their relationship to alma mater. This building’s campus prominence signals the growing importance of alumni involvement in TCU, and its handsome spaces leave no doubt that they will be the focus of much that happens at the university in the new era.

TCU Annual Fund

Gifts to TCU’s Annual Fund increased from 1992 to 1996.

In many ways, however, the Kelly Center represents the culmination of five years of strengthening relationships between TCU and its alumni. It began with an alumni board retreat in 1991 and the creation of a strategic plan, including expanding the board to 40 representatives and the Alumni Relations office staff to four professionals and two support staff.

A greater emphasis was placed on reunions. A reunion giving program began. Alumni involvement increased in career planning and placement, in student recruitment and in fundraising. And the numbers of alumni programs in chapter and non-chapter cities were significantly boosted.

Five years later, we can report much progress. During 1995-96, the Alumni Association and our alumni staff managed 73 events in 29 cities involving 6,531 alumni and friends. And more than 1,025 alumni volunteered across a wide spectrum of university activities.

TCU Voluntary Support

Voluntary contributions to TCU grew in 1996.

TCU alumni gave $9.3 million in gifts and helped to set a new record for the university’s Annual Fund. Some 28 percent of our 55,000 alumni contributed, a record number, up from 24 percent five years ago. And alumni who have never made a gift fell from 49 percent to 41 percent during the same period.

How important is all this?

Behind every quality university is a vibrant alumni body, possessing great expectations for alma mater. These alumni want their university to excel on the playing fields, in the classroom and at the boundaries of new knowledge. Our alumni are no exception.

TCU Alumni support

Alumni participation is increasing from 1991 to 1996.

TCU strives to be a better university. To do so, it is looking to its sons and daughters more than at any time in its history: looking for help in recruiting good students and providing advice in the career planning and placement enterprise., seeking leadership and counsel for its many boards and committees, counting on alumni support for its athletics teams, and trusting in alumni gift-giving for its fund-raising objectives as it pushes to complete The Next Frontier Campaign.

I hope that in the days and months ahead, as we call and visit you, you will understand our special needs for support and participation — and continue to respond in such splendid ways.