New alumni association program increases IU spirit

Nancy and Michael Uslan can sum up their IU experience in eight words: “Fell in love with IU and each other.”

They are challenging the “Spirit of IU” community to do the same as part of the site’s recent contest.

The IU Alumni Association  has teamed up with the IU Creative Services Office and launched a new facet of its website, hoping to increase online interaction among Indiana Hoosiers past and present.

The site’s title reflects its mission: to provide a social networking community where Hoosier alumni can share their IU pride.

“We came up with this idea because we realized people really wanted a way to engage and for the Alumni Association to be relevant in their lives,” said Rebecca Salerno, director of the IU Office of Creative Services.

It functions as an interactive game where “Spirit of IU” community members can earn points by engaging within the site.

They can redeem their participation points for merchandise or membership fee payments for the IU Alumni Association.

There is a community for IU alumni to find fellow tailgaters in Hoosier Village on game days.

Salerno said one main goal was to target the younger generation of alumni, those students who graduated within the last 10 years.

They plan to achieve this by partnering with notable IU alumni to sponsor interactive online contests, attracting more than 640 Hoosiers to the site since the July launch.

The first was a fashion contest where IU alumni and blogosphere fashionista Jessica Quirk of “What I Wore” sought to find the 10 contributors with the best IU style.

“It’s a great way to showcase some of the amazing alumni talent we have and tell their IU story in their own words,” said JT Forbes, executive director of the IU Alumni Association.

The current contest collaboration was inspired by IU alumna Nancy Uslan, founder of Books and Beyond, a global literacy program that provides reading material for Rwandan children in the wake of genocide.

Students living in the Global Village work through Books and Beyond to create an anthology of short stories with students in Newark, N.J., and Rwanda, said Lauren Caldarera, assistant director for the Global Village.

Nancy and her husband, Michael, executive producer of the Batman movies, have brought a “Spirit of IU” twist to the Books and Beyond mission; contest participants have to tell their “IU story” in eight words or fewer.

“It is an exercise that I hope anyone who attempts to accomplish will enjoy and take time to reflect on their greater experience as a whole,” Nancy Uslan said.

This contest will affect both the IU community and the benefactors of the Books and Beyond project.

“We are hoping that people will submit stories through IU and they will get to learn more about Books and Beyond,” Caldarera said.

The deadline for this contest is Dec. 1.

“It’s a quick and easy way to touch base with the IU community,” Forbes said. “It’s the first rung on the ladder of engagement once you graduate from the
University.”