Fall 2012 Alumni Council Meeting

Guest post by David Holden (’99)

On Friday, September 21, the Alumni Council gathered for their Fall meeting. David Holden shares his thoughts on the meeting with his college friends, and has allowed us to make them available to the greater Wake Forest community. Enjoy!

Hello Friends,

I recently attended the Alumni Council meeting at Wake and thought you might be interested in a few quick thoughts from the meeting:

1. The two new dorms behind Scales Parking Lot are well under way and are scheduled for completion by August 2013. They will be suite-style dorms for Seniors. Farrell Hall (the new Business School) is HUGE! It is expected to be finished and in use for summer school next year.

2. Those of you who worked out in the basement of the Benson Center are going to be extremely jealous. Reynolds Gym is going to be renovated and a new 250,000 sq ft Health and Fitness Center will be one of top fitness centers in the country when complete. The Sutton family, (four generations of Deacons and the founders of ISP Sports) announced the second largest gift in Wake Forest history at the football game on Saturday.

3. Wake dropped in US News and World Report Ranking from 25 to 27 (24-26 were tied). Our alumni giving percentage dropped which did hurt our ranking. If you are currently not a donor, please skip one dinner out and consider giving $25: giving.wfu.edu

4. Rogan Kersh, the new, very impressive Provost gave a fascinating presentation on Generations and specifically Generation Y (Those born 1983-2001). Positive Characteristics of Generation Y: hard-working, obedient, clean-cut and well-mannered, very organized, culturally tolerant, self-improving, self-confident. Negative Characteristics: Trophy Generation (everybody gets one), surface dwellers (not very deep, know a little about a lot of things), incurious intellectually, no life transforming passions, little creativity, frightened to fail, high pressure “it’s all work.” The most fascinating finding of the study was based on job changes during one’s career. Baby Boomers on average are/were expected to change jobs 1.5 times. Generation X expected to change jobs 7 times. Generation Y 29 TIMES!

5. The quiet phase of the capital campaign is almost complete. $215 million has been committed already. 28 families have committed over $1 million thus far. Wake’s emphasis on teaching over research has limited the number of gifts from corporations and foundations. Most large gifts now are coming from parents of current and past students and from mature alumni.

6. There is a Strategic Resource Initiative currently led by the Provost. This is essentially a review of what we spend money on as a University to figure out how we can spend smarter. Many kids who can’t come to school at Wake due to cost are Alumni kids and this is a problem. Discussion has begun about a new Alumni Scholarship Program.

7. There are no plans at this time to add another school to the ACC after Notre Dame.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Go Deacs!

David Holden