Alumni Association will move to Campus Center

A naming donation brings the Alumni Association close to its fundraising goal

Steffi Lau, staff writer
Daily Trojan
March 28, 2008

The Alumni Association is scheduled to relocate its headquarters in fall 2010 from the Widney Alumni House to the third floor of the coming Ronald Tutor Campus Center, a move alumni officials said will allow greater collaboration with the USC community.

"It will help increase our presence on campus and improve our interaction between alumni and students," said Scott Mory, associate senior vice president for alumni relations. "We're all looking forward to being in a place where we can build synergies and stronger communication."

The new Alumni Center will be named the Epstein Family Alumni Center, following alumnus Daniel Epstein's recent donation of $4 million to the Alumni Association.

The Alumni Center will provide much needed space for the Alumni Association staff, half of which currently work in University Village, the other half in the Alumni House.

The total construction cost of the new center is projected to be $7 million. The Alumni Association has already raised $6.4 million, including Epstein's gift.

Alumni House will continue to be used by the Alumni Association, but Mory said the university hopes to use the house as a USC history museum in the future.

The new center will provide work space for alumni volunteers, who currently have no dedicated space from which to work.

It will also allow the various cultural alumni programs - Asian Pacific Alumni Association, Black Alumni Association, Lambda Alumni Association and Mexican American Alumni Association - to work in the same location by providing office space for each association.

Though the APAA and BAA currently work from the Alumni House, the MAAA works in the Student Union and Lambda has no office.

Lambda also does not have a full-time staff.

"Lambda is working to the point to be able to have that staff," said John Paul Karliak, campus liaison for Lambda. "Being able to have that new space will definitely help. We will be able to have more traffic, making us more of a hub of alumni. Being right smack in the middle of campus will certainly help."

Karliak said that being located in the same building as campus groups, admissions, financial services and the other services expected to be housed in the Campus Center will help the associations partner with other groups.

"It's a little tight in there," Karliak said of the current space in the Alumni House.

Grace Shiba, senior director for Asian Pacific alumni relations, agreed.

"We're excited to move because as [APAA] grows, space is limited," she said. "We are growing in the number of volunteers, alumni and students we are reaching; so naturally, space is limited. It's a good problem to have."

Shiba said the new Campus Center will allow the various multicultural alumni associations to work together.

"The advantage of something like this is that we could all collaborate and support each other," she said. "Being in the same area will allow us to have stronger communication."