January 2009

Message to Alumni From the Executive Director

Myron Hughes

Fellow Bearcats,

In this exciting new year, you’ll likely hear a lot about UC Pride, and rightly so. Our alma mater continues to offer our UC family many reasons to be proud, as you’ll see in the newest edition of UC Magazine.

A January 2009 “Message to Alumni” must begin by celebrating our recent Orange Bowl experience. First, on behalf of the UC Alumni Association, thanks to everyone who made this historic UC football season and its culmination in Miami so special. The Big East Championship journey brought new visibility to the university, and it drew about 20,000 of us to Miami. While the game didn’t end as we hoped, the biggest takeaway was the incredible sense of community and camaraderie with so many UC people together in one place, for one purpose, so far from home. And, of course, thousands more were watching together across the country and around the world.

Many of the sights associated with the Orange Bowl trip were truly compelling … 600 students boarding 13 buses at the Myers Alumni Center for the caravan south … The airports, hotel lobbies, New Year’s Eve gatherings and UC pep rally crammed with Bearcats … C-Paws everywhere you looked … Our alumni and fans swarming the tailgate areas all around Dolphin Stadium … The sea of Red & Black inside the stadium, with everyone doing our signature UC cheers in unison. The event became an enormously wonderful UC family reunion. About 150 former UC football players were there, as well as many other former student-athletes … Speaking as one of them, the excitement level made me want to suit up and hit the field — and football wasn’t even my sport!

Yet while football made this happen, it’s about so much more. As alumni, the more we come together to support and involve ourselves in our university, the more we can accomplish. That’s the essence of UC’s Proudly Cincinnati campaign.  Launched in late October of last year, it promises to raise $1 billion to further elevate UC across the board. And cultivating all kinds of alumni engagement — in whatever forms it might take — is the UC Alumni Association’s role.

New opportunities to be more involved are coming up on the UC Alumni Association calendar of events. Our UCAA Speaker Series for 2009 gets started with a January 29 breakfast in downtown Cincinnati with President Zimpher. The UC Day Celebration, one of the biggest events on the UCAA calendar, is scheduled for February 3 at Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for the Arts. And as always, our regional alumni networks will offer a variety of events and get-togethers for Bearcats throughout the nation.

In closing, I mentioned that 2009 is about Pride — how UC is Bold, Strong and Ambitious as reflected in the new TV spot that debuted during the Orange Bowl. And it’s about acting on that pride by becoming part of the action, however it fits you.

• Certainly I encourage you to become a Life or Sustaining Member of the UC Alumni Association if you aren’t already. You’ll gain access to a growing family of benefits while helping to create and preserve a great alumni environment at UC.
  
  
• Consider direct financial support of the UC Alumni Association. When you give to the UCAA, you’re enabling our important work to flourish, which benefits us all.
  
  
• And find your personal niche in the busy UC community. Opportunities are everywhere. Feel free to contact us with questions, concerns or ideas. We’re here to serve you.

Happy New Year … and Go Bearcats!

Myron L. Hughes
Executive Director