Members of Now Defunct Senators Club Gather in Pryz for Bi-Annual Luncheon

Alumni of the University’s Senators Club met in the Great Room of the Pryzbyla Center Thursday for one of their bi-annual luncheons. Members of the club who graduated during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were the majority of attendees.

“It was great. We had a full house. They just love this school,” said Martin Dowd, men’s tennis coach and class of 1960 graduate, after the event.

Male commuter students in the then combined School of Architecture and Engineering who lived in Brookland formed the Senators Club in 1923. “They were studying architecture and engineering because those were the things to study after the war,” said director of Alumni Relations Marion Gosney on the founding members of the club.

“The Senators Club was and is a tight knit group,” said Gosney. “They want to reach out to the next generation of architects and engineers.”

The Senators Club became a networking hub and a philanthropic organization, although it was originally created to be a social club.

The club no longer exists at the undergraduate level. The club is solely an alumni organization that has grown to include men and women graduates from all schools.

Today, the club consists of more than 250 former members of the Senators Club and other alumni. The Senators Club is supporting a mission by the Dominican brothers in Pakistan. In addition, the alumni of the Senators Club have set up a scholarship fund, which is now the largest organizational scholarship fund at the University.

“We had it great. We had it cheap. We had it so easy you could not believe,” said alumnus Bill Rogers, class of 1960. “The four years went by in a flash.”

Alumni Return to CUA for Homecoming

Homecoming brought past and present together this weekend, as students of yesteryear encountered the changes that have occurred on campus over the past 50 years.
“The campus still looks good,” said Patricia Ann (Bergquist) Tartaglia, class of 1958, who came back to campus this weekend to relive the memories she created while at the University. “There’s a lot more buildings and students living on campus.”

Tartaglia, a former nursing major, said there were more undergraduates now, as there were only about 2,000 when she was a student. She had 38 students in her nursing class.

“There were more graduate students, about 4,000, then undergraduates back then,” said Tartaglia, who is currently retired and lives in Maryland.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was under construction when Tartaglia was a freshman, and wasn’t completed until she was a senior.

“I was capped, which is a ceremony in the nursing school after completing your work at the hospital, in the chapel of the Shrine in the basement.”

Tartaglia, who was a “day hopper,” or commuter student, also noticed changes in her major, especially the nursing students being a part of campus more. Nursing students lived in nursing dorms near the old Providence Hospital. “We commuted to campus on trolleys,” Tartaglia said.

She attended the alumni dinner on Friday night in the McMahon foyer. “The University really did a good job. It was relaxing to be in McMahon,” said Trataglia.

Rev. David M. O’Connell, president of the University, was not in attendance because he is still overseas traveling. He sent a video for the alumni to view.

Trataglia also hosted a brunch for nine of her nursing classmates at her home over the weekend.
Meghan Comey, associate director for homecoming and reunions weekend in the Office of Alumni Relations, said the Friday happy hours drew 300 alumni between both Capital City Brewery and Irish Times, and over 200 people were in attendance at the All Class Homecoming Bash on Saturday.

Many things have changed at the University, but “there’s still a nice spirit on the campus,” said Trataglia.

EDITORIAL: University’s Red Tape Has Impact on Alumni Donations

It’s only October, and already the administration has extended their sphere of influence into the neighborhoods surrounding Catholic University. Neighborhoods where students move to escape the dominion of DPS and the deans are the same neighborhoods where students are being pulled over by DPS officers and where off-campus parties are being disbanded by deans.

According to the Princeton Review’s ranking of colleges, our own Catholic University of America is ranked #19 on the list of universities with “Long Lines and Red Tape.”

According to us, we might as well be number one.

While the confused hierarchy here at the University is inconveniencing current students like John CoFrancesco and resulting in suspension for students like Justin DiFranco, the levels of alumni donations are speaking much more loudly than frustrated students can yell.

The overall level of alumni donations is, especially in comparison to similar universities, astonishingly low. Ron Sartini, a graduate with the class of 2006, said that many alumni would not make a “general donation” because of their overall opinion of the University and its internal politics.

“Many, many people leave CUA with the sense that the school was incompetently run and had academic policies that lack common sense,” he said.  “Their treatment of student organizations is…as the enemy and not the client of the university.”

The level of involvement that the administration is pursuing in the lives of our students is frighteningly parental.  For many students who are away from home, and for many upperclassmen that are off-campus, the confines that University has established are not conducive with the typical collegiate environment.  This extra enforcement would not be looked down upon as much if it was clearly creating more experienced, prepared graduates, but as our list of alumni continues to grow, the names that emerge as “big time” are few and far between.

James Bailey Brislin, another 2006 alumn, wrote in a May 12, 2006 edition of The Tower, “Catholic University will not improve until the administrative structure is reformed as part of a larger housecleaning reaching into the highest levels of the administration.”  The discrepancies within university policy become more and more evident with each major disciplinary decision reached.  When DiFranco requested clemency for his traffic violation in which he attested that a DPS officer should not be able to pull him over off-campus, he was answered with an apparently pre-written letter from the president’s office declining his appeal, even while the president was or was planning to leave on an overseas trip that very day.

When junior Vicky Mahoney created a Facebook event for “Oktoberfest,” an event that was blatantly promoting alcohol consumption and availability, John CoFrancesco was confronted about the event instead.  The only logical conclusion for any of this is that the internal structure of our disciplinary system is so confused, it is just as mixed up when it is enforced.

Unfortunately for the University, these are the memories that resound with students when they decide not to reach into their wallets and give back to their Alma Mater.   Many, like Brislin, feel their donation would only be contributing to more turmoil within the institutions.  In a March 31, 2006 issue of The Tower, Brislin said, “the average alumnus has no interest in subsidizing the annual operating deficit because he knows it is incentive for the deficits to continue.”

However, in the same article, Brislin makes an excellent point: that same student “may have an interest in assisting the department in which he took his degree or supporting some other aspect of university life.” “Despite adversement, mismanagement, and mistreatment,” he said, “I have enjoyed CUA.”

The community at the University is an unsurpassed institution that cannot be undermined by any confused hierarchy or backwards administration, and alumni are increasingly willing to donate to that aspect of campus. Sartini said that despite his distaste with the administration, “If I were to donate, it would be specifically to certain departments…I would donate to, and gladly do so, the philosophy department.”

Every student that graduates from the University has a place they cherish, like Sartini valued the philosophy department. Whether their loyalty is to a basement office where they return to help edit the weekly newspaper, or to the Conaty porch just to look up at their former residence, alumni find their niches in the people here, not necessarily the school.

Perhaps even the administration’s wacky ways are in observance of our best interest.  At what other college would a dean inform a student that the police had been notified about a party and suspensions were pending, or a DPS officer pull a student over, possibly outside of his jurisdiction, for making an illegal turn at 1:30 in the morning?  Maybe they do it because they care.

If that is the case, they sure do have a weird way of showing it.

Alum, Students Unite for Homecoming Weekend ‘08

Homecoming Week 2008, “Paint the Town Red…and Black,“ has started and events will continue throughout the weekend for both current students and alumni.

The week began with a concert on Monday with a cappella groups Redline, Take Note, and the barber shop quartet, Top Notch. Wednesday was a campus-wide scavenger hunt. Friday’s lunch will be a “spirit lunch,” with door prizes for students in the best spirit wear.

“We had a great turn out for the concert on Monday and the groups did a great job performing. We had about 300 in attendance total,“ said HoCo co-president Stephanie Calhoun. “We‘re having a great time and we think it’s been great.“

Tonight’s annual HoCo Charity Ball will be thrown by the House and resident ministers in Caldwell Auditorium. The proceeds from ticket sales will go to Mission Tanzania.

Voting for student Homecoming King and Queen, as well as faculty King and Queen, has been happening all week. The winner‘s will be announced during the football game on Saturday.

Students will show their Cardinal spirit during the game against Washington and Lee (4-1), at the DuFour Center at 1 p.m.

Graduates of the last 50 years are welcomed back to campus today and tomorrow for Homecoming and Reunions Weekend 2008, sponsored by the University‘s Office of Alumni Relations. Alumni from the classes of ‘53, ‘58, ‘63, ‘68, ‘73, ‘78, ‘83, ‘88, ‘93, ‘98 and ‘03 will be able to reconnect with their classmates and bring back old memories on campus.

Festivities include a pre-game tent party, a Reunions Mass, and an All-Class Homecoming Bash Saturday night, as well as several smaller, informal gatherings tonight and Saturday, listed on CUAToday.com.

“There has been more on-campus presence then we‘ve ever had in my time here,“ said Calhoun. “We‘re really looking forward to hearing feedback from everyone at the close of the week.“

ALUMNI RELATIONS SERIES: Classes to Reunite

The Office of Alumni Relations is keeping alumni in touch with the University through chapters, and events planned for Homecoming weekend, taking place next week on-campus.
Alumni chapters are all across the country and world, including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

“We try and be an alumni association for all the U.S. and the world,” said Marion Gosney, director of Alumni Relations.

There has also been chapter work on the west coast, in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle.

The chapters help to meet and keep fellow Cardinals in touch in all different parts of the world. Alumni chapters also help graduates to find other alumni to network, volunteer and have fun with.
Recently, a reception was held in June with students who were parliamentary interns studying abroad in

London and all of the alumni in Western Europe.

A pub and shopping tour in Ireland, to which all alumni are invited, has been planned for early December.

“The point of the travel trips is to spend time talking and listening to alumni, and provide them with an image of what a University student is like today. It is a way to “keep students connected to their alma mater,” said Gosney.

Homecoming will celebrate the reunions of the classes of 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003. The Office of Alumni Relations has planned numerous events for alumni.

Alumni Relations has partnered with Capitol City Brewing Company and Kelly’s Irish Times for happy hours next Friday.

“We want to focus on young alums and have events that will cater to them,” said Meghan Comey, associate director of Alumni Relations. There will be alumni drink specials at both locations. “We really want to speak to our young alums, because eventually they will be our 50 year class. We don’t want to loose you guys after you graduate.”

One of the biggest events is the alumni Pre-Game Tent Party, a barbecue for alums, which is held on the Saturday of Homecoming weekend.

“We are inviting the seniors to it for the first time ever because they are about to be alums and we want them to be included,” said Comey.

Alumni Relations has also redone their traditional Saturday night dinner dance, replacing it with an All Class Homecoming Bash. “We wanted to jazz it up, so it wasn’t as formal,” said Comey. Appetizers and an open bar will be available, but not dinner. They hope that 200 to 250 alumni will attend.

Special athletic events and individual school events are planned as well.

“We want homecoming to be a big fun weekend that people look back on, not just to reconnect with friends,” said Comey. “But as a way to come back and enjoy the campus in a different way.”

School Uses Internet to Raise Funds from Alumni

Editor‘s Note: This is the second in a four part series focusing on Alumni Relations in anticipation of Homecoming Weekend.
The history of alumni outreach has been a “spotty one,” according to University President Rev. David M. O’Connell, but the technological explosion in the last decade has rewritten the way financial transactions are handled in University life, including online alumni donations.
Last year, 80 percent of all Annual Fund gifts were from alumni. “Online giving accounted for four percent of the Annual Fund last year,” said Amy Wilson, director of Annual Giving. “This year it currently accounts for 28 percent.”

In an interview with CUA Magazine in the summer of 2006, O’Connell asked alumni to “forgive the University for its past failings and missteps,” and “remember what the University did for them and how the University helped them in their lives and not to focus on perceived political or ideological agendas.”

“If I was able to get the alumni to forget some of the missteps and to remember the good things, then I’d ask them to help us make the institution even better, even stronger, by giving us their support, because we can’t do it without them,” O’Connell said.

Alumni gifts are critical to the University for many reasons. One reason is five percent of the U.S. News and World Report college ranking system is determined by alumni donations.
Wilson said the University is encouraged by the online response of alumni and has renewed their outreach to them.

“The online community is a great opportunity for us to engage those alumni who don’t have checkbooks or permanent phone numbers, but who transact all their communications via the web,” Wilson said. “More and more of our alums are making all their philanthropic decisions and gifts via the internet, and we are now able to provide a portal for them to give to Catholic as well.”

The expanded uses do not stop with donations. “The online community has made it possible for us to do direct email marketing, reaching out to alumni on a regular basis and keeping them abreast of how their gifts are benefiting the students of Catholic,” Wilson said. “Annual Fund gifts, including those made online directly, support student financial aid, and we hope to get that word out to our alumni.”

The internet is also being used to thank those donors who have given their gift through cyberspace, she said.

“The ‘ThankYou Tube’ video, which was sent out via e-mail and posted on YouTube, was a huge success and allowed us to say ‘thank you’ to our donors and friends in a fun and very personal way,” Wilson said.