Alumni Gazzette
Havstad Alumni Center Use Studied
In recent months, officers and board members of the Walla Walla College Alumni Association have been studying the association’s structure and purpose. The study was initiated by the remodeling of the Havstad Alumni Center main floor interior.
The project included new carpeting, new office furniture, and improved insulation and air conditioning. Also, three new work areas were added to the three alumni and development workspaces that had been there since the building opened in 1981. The new workstations provide space for personnel formerly located in the basement offices.
The remodeled interior of the Havstad Alumni Center was introduced at an open house held Homecoming Weekend.
The main floor continues to house the offices of the Committee of 500 and the president of the Alumni Association in addition to College Advancement personnel (alumni, development, public relations).
The move by WWC to remodel, and the approval by the Alumni Assocation Board of $60,000 to help support the project, was contested by a group of alumni who questioned the decisions and process leading to the remodel.
Working to clarify these questions, the alumni board appointed a six-member alumni committee to rewrite a 1981 agreement between the college and the Alumni Association.
Once the committee began to meet, members concluded they could not re-write the agreement before reviewing the role of the Alumni Association.
The committee concluded its study in April and presented six recommendations taken to the business meeting during Homecoming Weekend in order to gauge the opinion of the alumni present. David Gillham, Alumni Association president, chaired the meeting. After more than four hours of discussion, a vote was taken regarding the continuing presence of College Advancement in the Havstad Alumni Center. By a vote of 115 to 108, alumni at the business meeting voted to recommend that the present situation (College Advancement located in the building) “will remain in effect until offices are available elsewhere. The motion is in force only until offices are available in the new Administration Building.”
Another recommendation presented at the business meeting was to reduce the number of college personnel positions represented on the Alumni Association Board from three to two. The recommendation was approved and will be reviewed by the Alumni Board.
To conclude the meeting, a motion was made to adjourn and refer all remaining issues to the alumni board, including the role of the alumni relations director and alumni activities budget review.
“We appreciated the wide input from a large number of people,” says Gillham.