Virginia Tech Magazine
Virginia Tech

Commentary


Vice President for Alumni Relations Tom Tillar '69
Tom Tillar '69
My recent columns have focused on our year-long 135th anniversary celebration of the Alumni Association. This issue of the magazine highlights many recent achievements of our modern association. For the first 50 years, volunteers kept the Virginia Tech flame burning through alumni programs and support activities that enriched the small college. Our first alumni office, located in a new War Memorial Gym in 1926, signaled that the association had entered a new phase with a staff designated to keep the college's 2,000 alumni engaged.

In 2010, we have more than 214,000 living alumni across the globe. Virginia Tech alumni make their marks in every profession, service, and dimension of volunteerism imaginable. Association programs extend far and touch alumni who cannot return to campus as often as they would like. Our chapter organization has never been stronger, with more than 120 active chapters led by volunteers and supported by our staff. Likewise, there were 175 different alumni events in the past year that engaged alumni through class reunions, college and departmental programs, multicultural interests, and student life programs.

We continue to place emphasis on our relationships with students to prepare them to be future loyal alumni. Our alumni chapters raise funds for local scholarship recipients, and endowed funds support many merit scholars. We oversee the class officer program that guides each unique class ring design. There were nearly 4,000 ring purchases in the past year, and the junior ring dance in Squires Student Center reached capacity for the first time in its 75-year history. Our Student Alumni Associates produce a variety of programs that foster Hokie Spirit and acquaint their contemporaries with future opportunities for engagement after graduation.

Another hallmark of the association is its awards program, which recognizes and encourages accomplishments and excellence among faculty, students, alumni, and local alumni chapters.

Our association is merely 135 years young! As always, we will continue strengthening a connected alumni base that is the envy of our peer institutions nationally. Virginia Tech is truly special. Our Alumni Association is proud to lead the charge to foster loyalty and expand a sense of pride across the entire Hokie Nation.

ttillar@vt.edu
Vice President for Alumni Relations

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Fall 2010
135th anniversary of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association
135th anniversary of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association
Alumni Gateway, 1920s