Celebrating the Past, Preparing for the Future
Posted on June 6, 2024 by Marketing and Communications
Founded in 1974, the University of South ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯ National Alumni Association is marking half a century of giving back to South and transforming studentsβ lives.
When you talk to members of The University of South ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯ National Alumni Association, you hear the same story over and over: The University transformed my life. I joined the National Alumni Association to help give others that same opportunity.
As it celebrates its 50th birthday this year, the Association provides more than $100,000 annually in scholarships, mostly to children of members.
Alumni have given their alma mater its signature landmark (Moulton Tower and Alumni Plaza, dedicated in 2010) and its most popular event facility (the MacQueen Alumni Center, which opened in 2020).
Both stand at the heart of the main campus not far from Hancock Whitney Stadium, home of the Jaguars football team since 2020. Those structures symbolize how sports, especially football, and the MacQueen Center have strengthened the bonds between alumni and a maturing University.
Happy Fulford β73, β91 was there at the Associationβs beginning in 1974. A group of young graduates who hung out together in Mobile thought βit just seemed like the right thing to do,β he says. βI give Ken Cunningham the credit for getting it all going because he was our first president.β
Fulford, a Mobile native, became the third president in 1976. βThere were eight people at the meeting,β he says. He won in a landslide with five votes.
βIt was a social thing,β he says of the Association back then. βAt 20-something years old, I certainly wasnβt thinking about endowed scholarships.β
And yet, βWe loved the University. We appreciated the opportunity it had provided us to get an ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯, and we did want to see it succeed and help it grow.β
Fulford was the first college graduate in his family. He worked his way through school. He planned to start at South and then transfer. βBut I really just fell in love with South. After the first year, I didnβt want to leave.β
He more or less didnβt. His decades-long career working at South included stints as director of alumni affairs and executive director of governmental relations. He retired in 2019.
The National Alumni Association now boasts more than 6,000 members. Benefits include travel, entertainment, financial services and retail discounts and several South-specific deals, including eligibility for USA Recreation Center membership.
Several societies within the Association have formed. Among the most active are groups for alumni of the various University colleges and the Jaguar Marching Band, plus societies for Black alumni, military veterans and past alumni board presidents.
Current President Kim Lawkis β11, β13 says the Association helps the University simply by bringing people to campus β and not just alumni. Groups from throughout the community rent the MacQueen Center for events.
βYouβve got the campus community, the alumni community and the Mobile community,β Lawkis says. βYou need all three of those for us to have a fully developed identity as a University.β
Like Fulford, Lawkis had to scramble to get a university ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯. She grew up in a single-parent working-class family in Scottsboro, ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯. From age 15, if she wanted anything besides the basics, she had to work for it.
At South, she had βsuch a great experience,β she says. She began volunteering for service organizations on and off campus. Today, sheβs chief operating officer of Feeding ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯, a nonprofit organization that assists food banks in fighting hunger.
βI want to just serve and give back to an institution that totally transformed my life,β she says. βWhen you look at how many kids try and donβt make it out of generational poverty, and then you get to the other side, you see that there are kids fighting so hard to be at South. What can I do for them?β
Through the Years..
1974
University of South ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯ National Alumni Association is founded with a mission
βto support and positively influence the goals of the University through an active
relationship with the University, its alumni, students and friends.β
1974
The Associationβs first president of the Board of Directors, Kenneth W. Cunningham
β68,
is appointed.
1975
The Association receives its certificate of incorporation as a not-for-profit organization.
1978
The Association creates the Universityβs first student ambassador program, the Southerners.
1979
The Association establishes its first student scholarship programs, the Alumni Leadership
Scholarship and the South ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯ Scholars Award.
1989
The Association establishes the Children of Alumni Scholarships program, which provides
scholarships for students from ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯ through the sale of customized collegiate license
plates. Today, the Association awards more than $100,000 annually in overall student
scholarships.
2000
The Association creates endowments to recognize outstanding achievement through its
Employee Recognition Awards and its Faculty
Excellence Awards.
2010
The Association dedicates Moulton Tower and Alumni Plaza, now the most recognized
landmark on campus.
2020
The Association dedicates and opens the MacQueen Alumni Center, the on-campus home
for South ³ΙΘΛΏμ²₯ alumni.
BE A PART OF THE
USA National Alumni Association's 50h Anniversary celebration by becoming a member.
Already a member? Join the 1974 Society with your gift of $1,974 in support of the
Association's programs and services.