AU, try thinking outside the Quad for alumni
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: