PSU Magazine Spring 1992

Just a phone call away Recent PSU graduate Vinette Scott is helping long-lost alumni and former students reconnect with the University. Scott works the phones for PSU's Annual Fund Program, administered by the Office of Development. Like her Phonathon co-workers, she spends several hours each week contacting Portland State alumni and parents of current students, seeking donations and gathering useful comments about the University. As of early March, the Phonathon program had collected well over half of its $641 ,936 annual pledge goal. Among Scott's contacts is a special group-the men and women who attended Portland State's predece sor, the Vanport Extension Center, during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The whereabouts of many of these Vanport students had been lost by PSU until this year. Aggressive research led to the discovery of names and addresses for approx imately 10,000 fo rmer PSU students and graduates-some who attended the Vanport campus in north Portland. The Annual Fund Program contacts about 25,000 alumni each year, says Trish T rout, a deve lopment director coordinating the Phonathon. Says Scott, "Many of these (Vanport) people hadn't been con– tacted by the University for years. A lot of them didn't feel connected with the school. My aim is to reconnect them with PSU." The fact that Vanport alumni are at or near retirement age makes the phone calling doubly enj oyable for Scott, who graduated in December 1991 with a bachelor's degree in social work and plans to pursue a master's de– gree in sociology and a graduate certifi– cate in gerontology at the University. "I approach the calls more on a per– sonal leve l because I have an interest in older people," says Scott. "I try to establish a rapport by just listening. Some of these people have no connec– tion with families, and are so happy to talk about what they've been doing. One man, an educator, never rece ived a 18 PSU BRIAN WHITE Vinette Scott '91 may be calling you as she talks with alumni for the PSU Annual Fund. degree but wanted to ta lk about how at– tending Vanport made a big impact on his life." Scott patiently explains to her con– tacts the changes and new develop– ments at Portland State. "Some of these people have taken workshops at the campus, but many haven't been on the campus fo r years," she says. "I invite them back to take part in all the activ ities and programs that they might not be aware of and te ll them that they're an important part of PSU's history, too." Many fo rmer students who attended Vanport aren't aware of all the benefits available to them, such as use of the library and health fac ility for nominal annual fees. T rout says it's important to explain the University's historical context to alumni. "These aren't just fu nd -raising calls," she says. "We're trying to get to know alumni better. We take the several thousand comments and sugges– tions we get each year, and fo rward them to the appropriate deans. "We try to explain how the campus has changed physica lly over the years, and remind them about how some aspects of the University-such as the Vanguard newspaper and Viking year– book- have a long tradition ." Loretta Chasse , manager of the Phonathon campa ign program, brings in PSU alumni to help student ca llers learn more about PSU's tradition and history. O ld films of campus activities from the 1950s and 1960s show the phone ca llers what Portland State was like a generation or more ago. The Office of Deve lopment has con– ducted annual fund -raising campaigns since 1978, but on a much more modest scale. "We only reached a small percent– age of the alumni, and the people call– ing were volunteers," Trout notes. "We realized we were much farther behind in fund ra ising than our sister schools." Now, student phone callers are paid and given in-depth background about Portland State to help them answer more questions from alumni. Thanks to Vinette Scott and the dozens of other PSU students working the phones, Portland State is getting better acquainted with an importan t part of its past. New board members The PSU Foundation Board of Direc– tors has recently added three new mem– bers. Joining the board is lsao Iwashita, president and CEO of SEH America Inc., and past president of Shokookai of Portland , the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. New member Stella Lillicrop is a community leader who recently moved to Lake Oswego from Houston where she served on the University of Colorado Foundation Board, and was active with the Houston Ballet and Zoological Society. Also new to the Foundation Board is Frank E. Ri vera Sr., founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of Advanced Data Concepts Inc., in Portland.