Alumni chapters continue to develop as changing demographics create the need for new regional groups across the country for Ohio University graduates. New chapters have been created in the areas of Grand Rapids, Mich., Buffalo-Rochester, N.Y., and Portsmouth-Ironton.
Assistant Director for Communications Dexter Bailey, BSJ '92, traveled to Grand Rapids this spring, where he met with a group that organized a new Western Michigan Chapter. The group plans to organize an alumni networking event and begin a scholarship fund-raising drive in the next year.
Assistant Directors in Alumni Relations Pam Vander Ark, AB '86, MA '90, and Judith Johnson met with a group of enthusiastic alumni in April to develop the new Western New York Chapter. This summer, the chapter plans to sponsor an alumni picnic and a winery tour.
In Ohio, a meeting was held in early May to organize the Tri-State Chapter in Portsmouth-Ironton, which will work closely with Ohio University's regional Southern Campus.
Alumni in South Carolina are being surveyed concerning their possible interests in creating an alumni chapter, and contacts also have been made with interested volunteers in Minneapolis and Louisville about starting chapters in those cities, said Associate Alumni Director Rick Harrison, BSJ '82.
Reorganized chapter groups that are examining operations and recruiting volunteers for steering committees include those in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Raleigh/Durham, N.C., Indianapolis, the Nation's Capital in Washington and the Cleveland Black Chapter.
On an international scale, Ohio University has established its first alumni chapter in Europe (see related story ) in Bonn, Germany, and, in Southeast Asia, the university is working to reorganize its Singapore Chapter and establish a new chapter in the Philippines, said Harrison.
Ohio University also sponsors alumni chapters in Japan and South
Korea in East Asia, and in Southeast Asia in Thailand, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan. More than 3,000 Ohio
University graduates live in East and Southeast Asia.
