FIU Alumni Center

Coming Home to FIU

Alumni and supporters make a pledge for FIU’s future

By Deborah O’Neil

The excitement began with an unassuming announcement from one of FIU’s most beloved ambassadors, the university’s first First Lady Betty Perry ’74: “I’d like to offer a $10,000 challenge grant for the new Alumni Center.”

The audience was 400 alumni and their families, community supporters and university leaders gathered in the Graham Center Ballrooms for the 7th Annual Torch Awards Gala. Together, Perry’s generosity and the promise of a new alumni home inspired the crowd and transformed a night of celebration into a chapter of FIU history.

In the next moment, Perry’s $10,000 became $20,000 as Stewart Appelrouth MS ’80 raised his hand and met her challenge.

Without missing a beat, Master of Ceremonies Barry Johnson quipped, “Anybody else with a checkbook here tonight?” Alumnus Michael Mendez ’03 immediately responded. $30,000.

Justo Pozo ’80 pledged and then Jorge Gonzalez ‘88. $50,000. Angel Medina ‘92, Ralph Gazitua and Jose Perez de Corcho ’93 stepped forward. $80,000. And then Jose Sotomayor ’93 made the final pledge of the evening, culminating a spontaneous $90,000 cascade of giving. 

The ballroom buzzed as the donors crowded onto the stage for a group photograph with FIU President Modesto A. Maidique. “None of this was scripted folks,” Johnson said. “What an excellent representation of the commitment of Miami to FIU.”

The giving continued beyond the evening of the gala. In the weeks that followed, three more individuals, Monte Kane MS ‘82, Albert Maury ’96, ’02 and Noel Guillama also pledged $10,000 each for a total $120,000 in donations thus far for the alumni center.

“I have never been more proud of FIU’s alumni,” said Maidique. “We have now opened the door to a new era – one where our alumni will play a vital role in building FIU’s success.”

Building alumni affinity

Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations Bill Draughon has been talking about an alumni center since he joined FIU five years ago. He’d seen what a thriving center could do from his days at the University of Florida, where thousands of people visit the 60,000-square-foot Emerson Alumni Hall yearly.

Back then though, the top priority was building a base of alumni support. Only a tiny fraction of FIU’s graduates were members of the Alumni Association. Revitalizing the alumni base would require new programs, active outreach, community partnerships and consistent communication. Draughon and his team did all of that, and they did it in record time.

In less than five years, membership went from fewer than 1,000 to more than 15,000. Earlier this year, FIU’s Alumni Association ranked No. 1 in the country for membership growth in a national survey of 76 major universities.

The time has come, says Draughon, to move forward with a new alumni center. The University of Central Florida has the 23,000-square-foot Fairwinds Alumni Center. The University of South Florida’s Gibbons Alumni Center features a research center, club room and library. The Florida State Alumni Center hosts weddings in its picturesque facilities. Even the University of Miami is building a 70,000-square-foot alumni center with a library, hall of fame, study rooms, living room, business center, courtyards and a café.

FIU is the only university of its size in Florida without an alumni center. That was a major consideration for Perry.

“There needs to be a gathering place for our alumni,” she said. “I think it will be an important focal point for students who have graduated and/or moved away and are coming back, or for those who still live in the area and maybe aren’t on campus often.”

A steering committee led by Alumni Association Board members Stewart Appelrouth and Michael Mendez has been formed to begin fund raising for the new center. Initial projections call for a multi-story center to be built just east of the new football stadium. Students in the architecture program will develop concepts for the building.

The center will be a signature building of a proposed new “ FIU Main Street.” It will be on the FIU campus immediately north of Tamiami Park between the Wertheim Performing Arts Center and the stadium. The Main Street will be a half-mile landscaped boulevard with student housing, retail shops and eateries.

“Downtown South Miami or Miami Lakes, that’s the concept,” said Charles Scurr, associate vice president of real estate development and planning. “It’s going to provide campus life and activities. It’s a really cool idea.”

The Alumni Center will stand at the west end of Main Street, offering students and alumni a chance to stroll through a gallery featuring FIU history and memorabilia. On football game days, the center will be a gathering spot for Golden Panther activities. And it will provide meeting space and classrooms for a variety of alumni, university and student events.

Leading by example

In the brief moment after Perry made her pledge that evening, businessman Justo Pozo made a decision. “I said to myself, ‘This is the time to step up and support the alumni center,’” said Pozo, a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Nearby, incoming Alumni Association President Jose Perez de Corcho was sharing the same thought.

“I said, ‘If this is going to be my number one priority as president, then I have to lead by example and this is the way to do it,’” Perez de Corcho said. “It’s very easy to generate that feeling of excitement when you put forth a project like this that shows where we came from and where we are going.”

For Appelrouth, supporting the alumni center is about investing in the future. “An alumni center is an important part of being a major institution,” he said. “We should have all the best of every institution. I stepped up because it was good for the university, good for the city, good for the state of Florida and good for the country.”

Miami businessman Ralph Gazitua said he is giving because, “FIU has given so much to my family. I absolutely believe in the power of giving back.” Gazitua’s sons Luis and Sean both graduated from FIU.

“The project is important because it creates a framework of leaders in Miami who are alumni to remain invested in FIU,” Gazitua said. “This is a great forum to share their knowledge and opportunities with the students that will follow them.”

The timing is right, said Mendez, to build support for the new center. “Most of our graduates are turning a corner in their careers. They’re all becoming successful. The university is on a pretty aggressive path. It will be 20 times better in the next 10 years. The alumni center will be one of the main focus points to get everybody involved.”

Like the old saying, “Build it and they will come,” Pozo believes the center will bring FIU graduates back to campus. “The Alumni Center will, for the first time, in my opinion, send a loud message to all 120,000-plus alumni that we have not forgotten them.”

This project, said Pozo, is one part of “the trifecta” that will rally alumni and lead FIU to further success: football, the medical school and the alumni center.

To pledge your support and help build the FIU Alumni Center, please call 800-FIU- ALUM or email alumni@fiu.edu