By way of background, I am a proud graduate of American University circa 1975. In those post-Vietnam War days, the university was referred to as "partyland on the Potomac." It shared this not particularly glorious designation with many schools throughout the country - it was more a statement of the times than of the quality of the learning experience. In my senior year I was elected to the Student Union Board and entrusted with $75,000 of my fellow students' money. With it, I and my staff created some lasting memories by producing six concerts and special events including, but not limited to: Bruce Springsteen, Hot Tuna, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Arlo Guthrie, Jimmy Walker and Robert Klein. This - whether it was one of my goals or not (and it wasn't) - made me a particularly recognizable member of the AU Community. I am in general an appreciative person. I'm the type who's honor-bound to repay any debts I have to those who fostered my intellectual or personal growth. In this spirit, just the other day I treated a friend of mine to dinner at Frankie & Johnnies in New York City. This friend, Marty Berman, a television producer, kept me from starving 20 years ago when I was a struggling writer in Hollywood. I regularly visit my high school in New Jersey to say hello to my teachers there. And then there's my dear alma mater, where I clearly spent the four most amazing and fulfilling years of my life. That's actually where this story begins... If I recall correctly, for the first two years after graduation I was granted a pardon and did not receive any alumni "junk mail." But in the last 20 years, I have received enough fund-raising solicitations to paper the Washington Monument. They have all met the very same fate - they have lined my bird cage. I am an "aging" hippie. I am an activist. I want to create things - unique alumni programs that will not line anyone's bird cage - and the goal of those programs is to foster the development of a "luster package" for the University. For 20 years I have dealt with the most inept, bureaucratic and visionless people at the alumni office, some so rude that I thought of burning my diploma. I created and attempted to launch some of the following:
-A Hot-Air Balloon Race -A Cross-Country Tag Team Road Rally -A "Yankee Met Alumni Peace Conference" -"The International Indoor Sports Championship" -"The Long Island Sound Regatta"
Each and every time I received answers like "we don't do that sort of thing" or "we are sticking to the annual plan." The purpose of these fund-raising special events would have been to develop a fund, strictly under the control of the alumni, to create a permanent legacy to repay the University for the many spiritual blessings it has bestowed upon us. The first one, a project that would have taken five to seven years, was called "Legacy Hall." This multipurpose building, using a model similar to Ellis Island, would contain an audio/video archive of student memories, home movies, parents' pictures, etc. Legacy Hall could be, perhaps, a student spiritual center or the home of the University Placement Office, or perhaps the Alumni Association itself. Well, needless to say, Legacy Hall and my most recent concept - the development of a minimum of five full-service university clubs - are still on the proverbial drawing board. I truly trust in the fact that the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" is not a freight train heading in my direction. And indeed, there is a light. Her name is Tracy Vranich, and she is just a wonderful and natural leader of the "development office." But Tracy, as able and committed as she is, does not do what I do professionally. I am the owner of a company that builds restaurant franchise systems, and my "part-time" job is to create film and television concepts. MY PROFESSION IS "A DREAM DOER." Each and every day I start with a phone and a piece of blank paper. My "j" "o" "b" is to make dreams happen. I speak to many prominent alumni, and frankly, although they have shared with me an amazing experience at AU, they just don't care anymore. Some of these people who spend too much time in airport passport-check control lines and have families are just not thrilled with the possibility of going to some Holiday Inn for a meet-and-greet. My God, don't the people in the alumni office ever leave the campus in their imaginations? These friends of mine need to be shown a vision and sold on that vision. I have tried to commit to this but just can't in the current development environment. Lately I have presented four "global" concepts to Ms. Vranich. The last one: The Annual Bahamas Alumni Festival and Clam Bake. I have a friend who is a furloughed pilot for Delta. Through Blue Star Jets, a 737-300 airplane could be leased for the day for perhaps $15,000. The plane, christened by President Ben Ladner (who, by the way, has failed to have the common decency to return four phone calls), "The Mary Graydon" would collect alumni on a Saturday morning in the fall from five major alumni cities and deliver them to the Bahamas for a day-long clambake and concert. They all would be snug in their beds again by midnight on Sunday. This event would cost each alumnus roughly $500. I believe it is safe to say that many of my fellow alumni spend more than that on a good dinner in Paris or New York. The response: "Do you really expect AU to lease an airplane?" No, of course I don't. What I do want is the support of the Office of Development, which should stop licking stamps for bird cages all over the world and start to think "outside of the Quad."
Jonny Falk is a 1975 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences. To respond, e-mail EdPage@TheEagleOnline.com.
