From the CEO

Dear alumni and friends,

The University of North Dakota has the greatest alumni and friends. I can say that with complete confidence after we set a fundraising record for the second fiscal year in a row!

To have raised a record $80.1 million after receiving $67.7 million in gifts and commitments in the previous fiscal year is amazing, especially given the upheaval surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Through your generosity, we will be able to impact the lives of UND students today and well into the future.

To learn more, please watch our 2020 State of the UND Alumni Association & Foundation Address. You can find it at UNDalumni.org/ Address.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Nistler CoBPA

One of the goals accomplished during fiscal year 2020, which ended on June 30, was the financing of the new Nistler College of Business & Public Administration. Thanks to a generous lead gift from Werner and Colleen Nistler and the contributions of many alumni and friends, a new building will rise on University Avenue. $50 million in private gifts were matched by $20 million in state dollars. I want to thank North Dakota legislators for their collaboration in this public/private partnership. Together, we truly are building the future!

Homecoming

With the health and safety of our alumni and students our top priority, we made the difficult decision to cancel in-person Homecoming events on October 5-10.

The decision was made by the UND Alumni Association & Foundation Board of Directors Executive Board in collaboration with UND President Andrew Armacost and UND Athletics.

See page 19 for more information.

We still want to celebrate and recognize this year’s Sioux Award and Young Alumni Achievement Award recipients. You can read their biographies starting on page 20. Please visit UNDalumni.org/homecoming for the latest Homecoming information.

Helping students during a crisis

I am so proud of the work that has been done by the administrations of interim President Joshua Wynne and current President Andrew Armacost to deal with the pandemic.

Throughout this difficult time, they have kept their focus on what is best for the students of this great University. Students back on campus August 24 are to follow a set of safety precautions outlined in the Healthy Hawks Smart Restart. You can find out more at blogs.und.edu/coronavirus.

When the pandemic took hold in the country, UND students were sent home and many suffered financial hardships as they and those supporting them lost jobs. At the time, the UND Alumni Association & Foundation put a renewed emphasis on the UND Angel Fund, which helps students during times of crisis. The funds are administered through the Division of Student Affairs & Diversity, which has set up an online application for students to request help. As of printing, more than $162,000 had been raised to support the Angel Fund with more than 170 students receiving critical aid.

And, we set up a separate program to help with another pandemic-related concern: whether students could afford to return to campus this academic year. At one point this spring, 8% of UND students had not reenrolled for the fall semester.

That sobering fact led us to launch the Open Door Scholarship program, aimed at providing tuition dollars to those most affected by financial troubles. We want to be able to offer students immediate assistance to help them receive their UND degrees. A $300,000 fund has been established to match gifts to the program 1:1.

You can learn more about the UND Angel Fund at UNDalumni.org/AngelFund and the Open Door Scholarship program at UNDalumni.org/OpenDoor. Please consider making a gift to help students pursue their dreams.

Remembering Tom DiLorenzo

I’m still at a loss to process the fact that my friend and our former provost, Tom DiLorenzo, was killed this summer, just weeks after leaving Grand Forks.

Tom retired from his provost duties at UND on June 1 and was tragically gunned down just a few weeks later during an early morning walk with his wife in Charleston, South Carolina.

Tom’s tenure at UND was marked by his strong advocacy to always do what was best for students and his caring and upbeat attitude. He was a great partner and advocate for our organization, was happy to put in the time working with our Board of Directors, gave to a variety of philanthropic causes at UND, and was always asking what more he could do.

An endowment fund has been set up in Tom’s honor. You can find out more at UNDalumni.org/ TomDiLorenzo. My sympathies to Tom’s family and friends. He will be greatly missed.

Board of Directors

To the credit of our board members, our May board meeting was successfully conducted online rather than in Grand Forks. I am grateful for the guidance this group provides and their dedication to the University of North Dakota. I want to thank three of our board members who have served out their terms and retired from the board in June: Doug Podolak, ’72, Linda Laskowski, ’72, ’73, and Carrie McIntyre, ’88. Joining our board are two new members, Scott Fredericksen, ’74, and Dave St. Peter, ’89.

Thank you for all that you do for this University and its amazing students.

Sincerely,

DeAnna Carlson Zink, ’86, CFRE UND Alumni Association & Foundation CEO deannac@UNDfoundation.org