The 2007 reunion classes, the classes from 1957 to 2002, were the first classes presented with the challenge of raising money for the Reunion Scholarship Fund – and they responded with fervor.

Nearly $100,000 was raised to support scholarships for rising sophomores. The Office of Financial Aid is currently identifying Reunion Scholars, the students who will benefit from this support.

Planning for the 2008 reunion classes has begun. Each class will set a fundraising goal, and members of those classes from 1958 to 2003 will receive correspondence from reunion committees throughout the next several weeks. To assist with reunion planning, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at alumni@susqu.edu.

For Robert ’59 and Linda Traub ’61 Fiscus, there is no greater good than service to others. They practice it in their own lives, and now, they are bestowing this value on future generations of Susquehanna graduates.

“When we were thinking about a designation, service projects appealed to us because we do a lot of that sort of work ourselves,” says Bob, a former alumni representative to the board of trustees.

The couple has participated in several service trips to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Their support of global service projects also took them to Honduras in 2003, and this spring they will travel to Ethiopia.

Bob says he and Linda were pleased to learn about their alma mater’s domestic and international service projects. “It’s really encouraging to see what the school is doing to get students involved in this work,” he says.

They are particularly pleased with the work of Susquehanna’s Hurricane Relief Team and SU CASA (Central America Service Adventure) programs. Both programs have received national recognition for their work. Most recently, SU CASA received two awards from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the preeminent national organization for student affairs in higher education.

The first is the International Best Practice Award for Student Philanthropy. The award recognizes internationally based programming sponsored by higher education institutions. The second is the Bronze Award for Excellence. It identifies SU CASA as one of the top three programs in the country in the category of Careers, Academic Support, Service Learning and Community Service. The hurricane relief program received the same award from NASPA in 2006. In addition, it was named to the 2006 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

Since SU CASA’s inception in January 1999, more than 240 members of the Susquehanna University community have served the needs of congregations, agencies and residents of impoverished communities in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The Hurricane Relief Team program was formed in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina to assist with recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast. Since its first trip in January 2006, eight teams of approximately 20 students, faculty and staff have traveled to New Orleans to provide aid and relief to affected communities.

It is to programs such as these that the Fiscuses decided to focus their philanthropic efforts. The Robert L. and Linda Traub Fiscus Endowment for Service Learning was established to strengthen and support ongoing student service projects and service learning programs that directly engage students in meaningful service to others.

The endowment is funded through the liquidation of a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT), established in 2002 following Bob’s retirement from UI Holdings Corp., formerly United Illuminating, an electric utility company in New Haven, Conn. The couple chose to liquidate the trust because, as Bob says, “We decided to give while we’re still living so we can see the fruits of it.”

Susquehanna University kicked off the campus phase of the Changing Lives, Building Futures campaign on Feb. 23. During the gala event, campus campaign co-chair Kate Hastings, associate professor of communications, reflected on the important role faculty and staff play in changing students’ lives and building their futures.

“We faculty not only teach, we advise student clubs, involve students in our research, model community service, and mentor students in their scholarly and career paths. But faculty aren’t the only teachers,” Hastings says.

“Our colleagues in the library demonstrate ways of asking questions that lead to original answers. Students learn from the student life staff, the chaplain, the woman who serves them coffee, their work-study bosses, the facilities crews and the coaches who pull teams together,” she says. “Picture a rough stone and a rock tumbler. We are all the grit in the tumbler and each interaction with the stone makes it shinier.”

Three of those well-polished stones shone brightly when President L. Jay Lemons surprised them with an announcement reminiscent of the one he made at Homecoming 2006. Following the lead of trustee Barry Jackson ’68 and his wife, Denise Horton ’68 Jackson, who surprised three seniors with scholarships during the campaign launch, trustee Sandy Rocks ’75 funded $10,000 scholarships for a freshman, a sophomore and a junior: Jeffrey Brooks ’09, an accounting major from Cogan Station, Pa.; Amanda Hill ’10, a theatre major from Mountain Falls, Colo.; and Catherine Bixler ’11, a business administration major from Boiling Springs, Pa.

Since the Changing Lives, Building Futures campaign began a few years ago, current and retired members of the university’s faculty and staff have contributed nearly $1 million. In all, it is hoped that $1.25 million will be raised through the campus portion of the campaign.

“Faculty and staff contributions, no matter how large or small, serve as a vote of confidence in what happens at Susquehanna each and every day,” says Joanne Marquardt ’00 Troutman, director of the Susquehanna University Fund. To date, almost 50 percent of the faculty and staff have contributed to the campaign.

Two unique giving opportunities have been established for the campus campaign – one in support of the new science building and one in support of student scholarship. The New Horizons Scholarship for Cross-Cultural Learning is designed to support students who seek to fulfill the cross-cultural learning requirement within the new central curriculum. Gifts to this fund will support students who immerse themselves in a culture different from their own.

The other giving opportunity allows donors to support the new science building in two ways that will help the project earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. A pair of educational displays will offer visitors such features as real-time information about the building’s energy consumption and factors contributing to its LEED certification. It will also create a brick replica of the periodic table of elements in the central courtyard outside the building’s north entrance. Each of the 118 elements can be named for a gift of $5,000.

“We’re excited about both these opportunities because they give donors a chance to be recognized permanently for gifts of as little as $450 (see information box below),” says Ron Cohen, vice president of university relations. Donor names will be displayed on a wall inside the north entrance and directly on purchased pavers.