Alumni Association News

Homecoming 2009: Save the Date!

Can’t believe that almost a year has passed since Homecoming 2008? It’s true: the big event of the upcoming academic year is just around the corner—the week of September 21, when alumni and friends flock to the U of U campus to take part in a trip down memory lane. After a week chock-full of informative and entertaining activities, Homecoming Week 2009 will wind down on Sept. 26 with the traditional football faceoff. This year, Utah will take on the University of Louisville, which will help set the stage for another exciting football season. Save the date!

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Help! I Lost My Job!

Alumni Career Services program manager Julie Swaner, at right, listens as Job Club participants share their experiences with job hunting.

Not many could have foreseen the economic crisis that hit the country, and then the world, in mid-2008—but, fortunately, Alumni Career Services is available to job-hunting alumni who have been laid off and need some help in getting their careers back on track.

Alumni Career Services program manager Julie Swaner BA’69, a professional career counselor who holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut and is currently working on her doctorate at the U, has come up with some ingenious ways not only to help alumni find jobs, but also to help boost their morale. One of those innovations is Job Club, an informal gathering held every Friday on the U of U campus—at no cost—to anyone looking for employment who wants to grab some tips from Julie as well as from other job seekers.

“When the economy was humming,” says Swaner, “Job Club petered out because few people were looking for employment. Now it’s become very popular; we’re seeing more people than ever. And many of those taking advantage of Job Club, as well as other services we offer, are succeeding in finding jobs—and good ones. There are jobs out there to be had,” she says, “and it’s just a question of picking up the necessary skills to convince employers that you would be an asset to their organization.”

Another essential skill that Swaner possesses is her one-to-one coaching approach. “Some companies provide coaching for employees who are being laid off,” she notes. “But fees for outplacement coaching range from $1,000 to upwards of $15,000, depending on the position of the employee, the years of service at the organization, and the amount of money a company has dedicated toward investment in that person.” But, she is quick to point out, “Alumni Career Services provides the same services that the expensive outplacement firms offer. We employ a coaching model that is fundamental to our program paradigm.”

Transition coaching, says Swaner, “helps the dismissed employee to understand his or her critical skills and abilities within the labor market, and to determine the best and most appropriate course of action to take, according to the age, career background, skills, and aptitude of the individual.”

As an experienced career transition coach, Swaner partners with alumni and other clients to keep them moving forward through “a reinvention process” so that they are able to reach their career goals and minimize the downtime between jobs.

Need help or more information? Contact Julie Swaner at (801) 585-5036 or by e-mail.

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ULink: “Linking you with the U!”

Ta-da! This spring, the University of Utah Alumni Association introduced ULink, a Web-based program designed and tailored specifically to provide University of Utah alumni with an innovative online community.

The community generated through ULink will allow alumni to more fully engage, not only in social networking but also in managing personal records, joining groups, contributing to a blog, and taking advantage of the Alumni Career Center. Alumni can also personalize their account to best fit their interests and group involvements.

Another advantage is that ULink will support the Alumni Association staff in better serving its members by facilitating a more efficient way to manage data, such as address updates. ULink offers an interactive experience for the entire University of Utah community and is a great way to stay involved and connected.

ULink can be accessed from the Alumni Association’s home page, www.alumni.utah.edu.

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Spring Awards Banquet 2009: Honoring Excellence

Each spring, the Alumni Association and its Young Alumni Board (YAB) honor an alumnus/a who attended the University of Utah within the last 15 years with the Par Excellence Award. The award is presented on the basis of the recipient’s outstanding professional achievements and contributions to the betterment of society. The YAB also recognizes a faculty or staff member with the Philip and Miriam Perlman Excellence in Student Counseling Award for his/her dedication to students in helping them steer a successful course through their studies at the University. This year’s awardees are:

Par Excellence Award

Edward R. Morrison BS’94 (University of Utah), J.D., Ph.D. (University of Chicago)

At age 37, Edward R. Morrison has achieved more than many do in a lifetime. He has risen rapidly in his chosen field of law to his current position as professor of law at Columbia University.

Following his graduation from the U with a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in economics and accounting, Morrison received an M.A. (in 1997) and Ph.D. (2003) from the University of Chicago, Department of Economics, as well as a J.D. (in 2000) from the University of Chicago Law School, where he received a number of other honors and prizes for his outstanding scholastic achievement.

Morrison began his law career in 2000-01 as a judicial clerk for Judge Richard Posner in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. In between that appointment and his present position as a professor of law (since 2007) at Columbia Law School, Morrison served as a judicial clerk (2001-02) for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and as a visiting professor (spring 2008) at the University of Chicago Law School.

Morrison recently testified before Congress regarding the financial crisis and put forth policy proposals, parts of which were included in the Senate version of the Obama administration’s stimulus plan. He has been quoted in a number of major U.S. publications and is a member of the national Bankruptcy Conference. He has published extensively in professional publications about bankruptcy law and bank regulation.

“I trace my roots here. My skills and scholarly ambitions, my sense of what counts as quality research and good argument, and my awareness of what issues matter to public policy—each facet of my professional career is rooted in specific experiences at the University of Utah.”
—Edward R. Morrison

Philip and Miriam Perlman Excellence in Student Counseling Award

Barry Shultz, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Exercise and Sport Science

Since 1982, when he began teaching at the University of Utah, Barry Shultz has held numerous positions in the College of Health, Department of Exercise and Sport Science—as assistant and associate professor, then as director of Graduate Studies, where he was responsible for recruiting and processing applications for new graduate students and teaching assistants, advising graduate students, and scheduling and monitoring the curriculum, among other responsibilities. Since 2007, Shultz has served as chair of the department, overseeing the entire program while staying involved with advising and mentoring students.

Before arriving at the U, Shultz was an assistant professor at the State University of New York College at Brockport. He received his doctorate from the University of Maryland, in physical education, in 1974, and has written extensively on various topics related to his field of expertise.

Shultz has been described by a colleague as “an incredible mentor to the graduate students in our department—the faculty member students go to when they have questions, comments, or problems with any aspect of the graduate program.”

Outstanding Scholars

Also honored at the Spring Awards Banquet are Alumni Scholars, including Achievement Scholars, Young Alumni Scholars, the Emeritus Scholar, Alumni Bennion Fellows, and Outstanding Seniors (selected by their respective colleges). Scholarships awarded by the Alumni Association amount to more than $250,000 for the upcoming academic year.

The majority of scholarship funds come from the Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Board’s annual 5K Run, Scholarship Scramble Golf Tournament, memberships, a percentage of U of U license plate sales, affinity partners, and individual donors. Thank you!

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