Jerry Wayne, vice chancellor for Alumni and Community Relations, became the new director for the IUS Alumni Association in fall 2009.

Wayne was promoted to the vice chancellor position in February.

“[The SAA is] designed to keep the alumni engaged and informed about the university, and to keep them active in the university after they graduate,” Wayne said.

Before becoming the director, Wayne was in the hotel business. He worked for many hotels including the Galt House in Louisville, Opryland in Nashville, Tenn., and The Greenbrier in West Virginia.

“I’ve been in the hotel business for about 31 years, and I said, well, this is my home,” Wayne said. “I missed Southern Indiana, and, plus, I have always loved the campus. I’ve really developed a strong relationship with the chancellor and some of the vice chancellors.”

Wayne said he believes his experience in the hotel business has also helped him become the director for the alumni.

“I feel one of the things that comes to my background in the hotel business is that I was heavily involved in a lot of association and committee work,” Wayne said. “That prepared me for this. I had a lot of those types of experiences before.”

Jenny Wolf, director of University Communications, had served as the intern director of alumni affairs before Wayne.

However, Wolf said she enjoysWayne’s dedication to the organization.

“A strong alumni association is very important to IU Southeast,” Wolf said. “Having the leader of our alumni affairs office also be a vice chancellor shows how committed this campus is to having a successful alumni
program,” she said.

Wolf was in charge of the alumni from 2008 to 2009, but said she looks forward to seeing what Wayne is going to do with the alumni.

“During his time as alumni director, vice chancellor Wayne demonstrated how committed he is to connecting our alumni to the campus, and I am very excited to see how much he is going to accomplish in the coming year,” Wolf said.

The responsibilities of the director include running the SAA, working with the board of directors and planning events for the alumni.

“We also do Harvest Homecoming,” Wayne said. “We were heavily involved in the Medallion Dinner, and we worked with the athletic department and campus life for the Homecoming. We put on activities for the alumni to get together and opportunities for the alumni to get back together.”

Wayne said he is looking towards the future and wanting to expand some of the activities the SAA has already done.

“One of the things we are working very diligently on is developing reunions for individual schools,” Wayne said. “One of the things we find about IUS alumni is their first affection to the campus is with their professors. The second is to the school and the third is to the university as a whole.”

Wayne said he is focused on working with the Student Alumni Association to help students discover jobs in their major.

“We want to start the Student Alumni Association and get that built up so that we can help those students tie into our alumni to give them good jobs and to possibly give them job shadowing days, some internship programs and some interning opportunities,” Wayne said. “It’s one this to get your education. It’s another thing to get your job.”

There is no cost to join. Wayne said he wants student to view it as a chance to connect with the university.

“It’s good to help the students get involved and understand about volunteerism and commitment and involvement,” Wayne said.

Wayne also said he is trying to get more people in the alumni involved with the community. One of the people getting involved is New Albany mayor, Doug England.

“Doug England, our mayor, has expressed a strong interest to get reengaged and back involved,” Wayne said. “We’re reaching back out to the community. Doug England is going to get back involved and so we feel like moving forward the alumni association is going to be the catalyst for people to get reengaged.”

Wayne said he is impressed with the overall commitment to the alumni from the chancellor, faculty members and students.

“It’s an exciting time,” Wayne said. “We get the students involved, and to be able to grow this association so that 10 years down the road it’s going to be a very strong and vibrant part of IUS’s overall operation,” he said.

By CLAIRE MUNN

Staff Writer

clamunn@umail.iu.edu