SATURDAY MORNING WITH THE COUNCIL

On Jan. 11, the Dana Alumni Council sat down with the DANA REVIEW for an informal chat about the council, Dana and alumni affairs. Here’s an excerpt from the conversation:

DANA REVIEW: Tell us a little bit about the Alumni Council and how it works.

Alan Pedersen ’80: The council meets four times a year, roughly. We have a fall meeting at the start of the year, and then we have a meeting around Homecoming and one at the end of January and then another in April. As the year goes on, we address different things that are coming up. We’re fairly involved in Homecoming and definitely those types of things. We’re also involved some with what happens at Sights & Sounds with alumni. The Alumni Council helps with some of the recognition dinners at Homecoming, graduation time and also some of the other times during the school. We try to represent the alumni of the college, help them remember their times here and get them involved currently.

REVIEW: What kind of reasons do you get involved in the alumni council?

Pedersen: It’s kind of a friends and family free-for-all. Over time different people that are on the council bring new people onto the council. We try to have a good distribution along when you graduated.
Julie (Thorson) Rohlfing ’70: Seriously, I hope I didn’t twist too many arms. I do watch events and keep track of people I know and have met and see who would have the skills to be a leader to make decisions and enjoy coming to four meetings a year. You guys all have been good. It’s been fun to recruit many of you, and recruit many of you to take a second term.

Tim Marsden ’97: I think it’s exciting to be able to give back something to Dana, because I feel that they’ve helped shape who I am and my career and just made a foundation for me in life. So it’s fun to be able to be part of a group that’s able to give back in service.

REVIEW: What are some of the challenges that are facing the council now and will be facing the council in the future?

Marsden: I think one of the challenges is keeping young alumni involved. You tend to leave Dana and think, “OK, well that was fun. Now on to this next bigger, better thing.” But it doesn’t stop there. Your involvement in Dana hopefully will continue.

Ingvert Apple ’58: One of the problems I think with Dana alumni is that we’re so scattered out. But I think that’s one of the problems: How do we keep the alumni together? To get together socially? But Homecoming’s about the only shot you’ve got, really.

REVIEW: The alumni covers such a large group and generations of people, how do you deal with the challenges of that?

Kathy (Niemeyer ’68) Kuster: I think a good example of that is we’re talking about Homecoming next year, talking about having a something like a polka band earlier, and then from 9 to 12 have a DJ for the younger alumni. We can’t expect to do the same thing for everybody.

Rohlfing: I was thinking it might be nice to talk a little bit about the Distinguished Alumni Award and how that happens.

Trasy Sparr ’93: Sure. One of the functions of the Alumni Council is each year we recommend nominations for both the Distinguished Alumni Award and the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. The Outstanding Young Alumni Award goes to someone who has graduated in the past 15 years and has done remarkable things in their service life, in their life still connected to Dana. The Distinguished Alumni is for someone beyond that point — beyond the 15 years — who has distinguished themselves, whether in their career, or in their service to the college, or their service to humanity, and kind of a combination of all those things. I think that’s probably one of the struggles we face as Alumni Council, though, is getting these names in combinations. We all know, there are people who have graduated from here and done remarkable things, but they are spread out, all over the country, all over the world for that matter. And to find out about these people, you almost have to know somebody else who knows somebody else. That’s a difficult thing. It’s kind of a struggle. Because you know there’s somebody out there who still has that connection, whether we see them on a daily, monthly, yearly basis, or we don’t see them because of their location. But they should be recommended and nominated and honored.

Pedersen: What a celebration! Most people don’t have such nice things said about them before they die. The way their families come in and celebrate with them, it’s something really special.

Sparr: And it is special, because you can tell how much Dana played in who they became.

Pedersen: Right.

Sparr: How they got to that point. I know I was at one once and a gentlemen had his kids, and his parents and the whole family. And he was pointing out everything and how Dana plays a big part in people’s lives. I think Dana’s different than UNO, UNL, somewhere like that. You don’t just get a four-year degree and go away. We talk about Interim. Cheston’s still here, and doing Interim, and I loved Interim. I thought it was great. It changes, but it’s still the same. So no matter what age group you have here, there’s a connection.

Pedersen: That’s one of the big challenges for us as an alumni committee. For example, when we’re out promoting Dana, we have someone who asks about the school and we have the chance to talk about our experience. Sometimes we give information that is no longer valid as to how the college operates. For example, as I understand it, the student attendance rate at some of the weekend events has gone down a little bit. More people have cars, more people have gas money. We have to be careful that we don’t tell them something that isn’t true. We don’t want to be out there promoting that.

Sparr: I think that’s part of our job as Alumni Council members to promote and talk, whether you’re out there really selling it or just talking about how happy you were to have been here.

Keith Jensen ’56: I think we have kind of a unique perspective to communicate what Dana’s all about. And as much as we’re not staff, we’re not paid professionals, we don’t have an ax to grind, just someone who has had the Dana experience and feels that excited about it. So I think that within Dana College we are a unique group. That we in fact can do that probably better than some of the other people.

REVIEW: Are there any upcoming changes that will affect anything to do with alumni affairs?

Rohlfing: The golf cart’s going to win the parade this year. (Laughter)

Related Story: Alumni Council Members