When a university brings in rows of food trucks, giant inflatable party games and a stage and area where organizations can show what they’ve been working on, it tends to gain some attention. Couple that with a day where the students can showcase what they’ve been researching, studying and completing for their academic program, and it would certainly be a day to remember.
The University of Dayton had a record-setting number of donations during the One Day, One Dayton event April 19, 2023, and it could largely be in part due to the annual Brother Joseph W. Stander Symposium falling on the same day.
One Day, One Dayton, which also became known as the giving day, started April 10, 2019, as an initiative to invite University of Dayton alumni from all over the country to donate and give back to the institution they called home years ago.
“One Day, One Dayton is all about participation, philanthropy and engagement,” Catherine Richard, an alumni engagement officer for the University of Dayton, said. “It’s all about raising awareness about all the awesome things we do on campus. It’s also about encouraging our alumni, students and friends of the university to engage philanthropically and then to have some sort of engagement with the university.”
For the first One Day, One Dayton, UD President Eric Spina set the goal of at least 1,850 donors, this number being significant because it is the year the University of Dayton was founded. Although this was the set goal, the community responded in strength as over triple of that goal donated funds to UD. Provided by Cara Zinski-Neace, the executive director for news and communication for the university, the final number of donors was 5,638.
While the amount of donations were much higher than the original goal, the monetary value was also shocking. The final amount of money donated was $866,284. This overwhelming success for the first ever One Day, One Dayton turned it into an annual event.
The next year’s event outcome wasn’t as fruitful the following year, however. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, UD alerted students that the university was suspending any and all in-person courses starting March 10, 2020. Furthermore, all university housing would close down the following day, meaning UD would majorly be uninhabited.
Because the giving day was to be held April 2, 2020, the total number of donors and money donated was just less than the first giving day. With 1,550 donors, a total of $702,481 were donated. Despite the shutdown just beginning not even a month prior, UD alumni and donors had no problem keeping the generosity alive.
On April 14, 2021, the university held the third annual giving day, and the totals rose significantly from the year prior. The total donor goal was 3,700, but the actual turnout was a total of 6,024 donors who contributed funds to the university and the academic program. What’s more impressive is the $2.8 million raised.
With a heightened anticipation, sights were set on the 2022 One Day, One Dayton. However, it wasn’t quite the same as the year prior as $2.1 million was raised from 6,231 donors. With high hopes, the university began to look forward to this year’s giving day.
Look to this year’s giving day, the University of Dayton surely did. Beginning 10 a.m. April 19, events started all over the campus for students, staff, faculty and guests to take part in. The entirety of the Central Mall outside of Kennedy Union was filled with potential donors, students anticipating their research presentations and supportive family members roaming about. The turnout was exactly what the university wanted.
“[The turnout] really is something,” Molly Potter, the vice president of the Students for University Advancement, said. “We took a step back and just said, ‘Wow, we did it.’ After all of our hard work, it has finally come together. I’m just ready to have fun. It’s a great day, and it is so pretty.”
Dotted along the road next to the Central Mall were food trucks serving a number of different styles of cuisine. Ranging from Chinese food and coffee all the way to comfort food such as smoked wings, barbeque ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and cheese fries. The Rudy On The Run, UD’s own food truck, was also serving hungry customers.
Covering a large portion of the Central Mall was a massive tent where a stage and speakers were set up. Throughout the day, multiple organizations from the university, like the UD Dance Team, put on performances to showcase their work over the course of the school year.
Surrounding the stage and the perimeter of the tent were tables set up for various UD clubs and organizations. There, more donors and visitors could visit and be given information on what the university has to offer their students in terms of extracurricular activities.
Outside of the tent and food trucks were a multitude of games to ensure the visitors were entertained. Ranging from cornhole and mega-Jenga to an oversized Connect Four and a massive target to kick soccer balls at, there was something for everybody.
Although most of the events took place during the day at the Central Mall, there was still more activities and events to attend even at night. Starting at 7:00 p.m., the Fitness and Recreation Complex, or RecPlex, hosted games such as a massive knockout competition in which almost 400 students participated. Not only that, but free food, like pizza, fried chicken and cookies, were provided to any and all visitors.
Although the game of knockout and free food was quite a selling point to visit the RecPlex, there was one last announcement before the night ended that would make waves in the community.
“Tonight, we’re going to launch the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign in 20 years,” Spina said. “It’s focused on student scholarships to make certain we get the best students who fit well at the University of Dayton.”
In the RecPlex basketball courts was a screen with bleachers that enabled students to sit and watch the announcement as it was being livestreamed. In a performance put on by the students and faculty at UD, the presenters depicted the journey that laid before students as they first entered the university and how they found their purpose at the institution they were to call home for years to come.
At 9:15 p.m., the university posted to social media to announce this new $400 million fundraising campaign called We Soar to provide scholarships to incoming students. Since the campaign was announced, about $327 million has been raised.
With the number of events, activities and entertainment provided by the university, it was clear UD was going to try and break their previous donation record of $2.8 million that was set in 2021. In the weeks following this year’s One Day, One Dayton, records have been set.
Although it has not even been a month since the giving day, the university blew their original 4,500 goal for donors out of the water as more than 7,200 individuals have already donated. All of those donations have added up to a whopping $3.4 million, overtaking the previous record of $2.8 million.
With this astonishing number of donors and an incredible monetary value, the university is able to continue to enhance the learning experience and opportunities of its students.
“It’s what funds their scholarships and a lot of the programs we have here on campus, which is so amazing,” Richard said. “I know that, without a lot of the things we do here today, they wouldn’t be able to do all of the amazing things that they do in the classroom, out and about in the Dayton area, and a lot of their student trips and things like that. Throughout their four years here on campus, everything we do about One Day, One Dayton impacts them, from start to finish.”
The massive success of this year’s One Day, One Dayton event can be chalked up to numerous factors, but this is the first year the Brother Joseph W. Stander Symposium fell on the same day as this event, which could set the precedent for years to come.
The Stander Symposium, like One Day, One Dayton, is an annual event for the university. Most UD students relish this event as a simple day off where they don’t have to attend classes. However, to some undergraduates, this is a perfect opportunity to show the community what they’ve been doing during their time at the university.
Since 1988, the Stander Symposium allots time for students to formally present their research, the results of their experiments and view other exhibits and presentations. There is no limit to learning as this is truly an all-day event with topics ranging from criminal justice studies all the way to results from experiments performed in a biology laboratory.
The university started the day off right with a free breakfast at 8:00 a.m. for all presenting students. From there, the day of learning kicked off as the first poster session started at 9:00 a.m., allowing students, faculty and visitors to approach each area and learn about each topic at their own leisure.
For one student, this was the second to last hurdle of her academic career, second only to graduation. Allison Herceg, a biology major from Cleveland, was one of the students who gave a presentation outlining the outcomes, findings and results of her experiments and research.
Herceg is a student of Dr. Yvonne Sun, who is a full-time associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and she specializes in biology. Sun runs a laboratory on the UD campus, which is where Herceg found her calling. In this lab, she studies one specific pathogen, and was the focus of her presentation.
“The title of my Stander Symposium presentation was The Effect of Anaerobic Propionate Exposure on Listeria Monocytogenes Pathogenesis, which is a mouthful I realize,” Herceg said. “Basically, my project was on the foodborne pathogen Listeria Monocytogenes, that causes an infection known as Listeriosis.”
Nina Vaccaro, a criminal justice major from Madison, Wisconsin, also gave a presentation during the Stander Symposium. Her presentation was completed to complete her senior capstone, which is a large-scale project done to complete her academic program.
The title of Vaccaro’s presentation was Sexual Assault Cases and the Claim of Consent, and along with one of her classmates, they sought out to find the impact and implication of suspects claiming consent in their sexual assault cases. Although their research starkly contrasted that of Herceg, it goes to show the wide variety of topics the students have researched and made the focus of their efforts.
Both Vaccaro and Herceg’s work stood as a culmination of their hard work during their studies at the University of Dayton. However, one thing students may not think of is how the labs and research teams receive their funding. Actually, most of their funding comes from donations, much like the donations from One Day, One Dayton.
“The first summer I stayed on campus doing research was through the Berry Summer Thesis Institute, and that’s funded through the Berry Family Foundation,” Herceg said. “They are generous donors to the university which makes the Berry Summer Thesis Institute possible.”
Herceg continued to say the lab in which her fellow students and herself complete their research is funded through the Honors Program. The donations that come in from this program help to fund the research they do. She continued, saying this wasn’t the only program that aided to fund the research done on campus. Several of her classmates also do the Dean’s Summer Fellowship, which wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of donors everywhere.
“I know that people can donate directly to the Honor’s Program,” Herceg said, “or directly to the College of Arts and Sciences, or directly to the biology department, for that manner to help fund equipment for the bio department.”
This year was the first in which One Day, One Dayton and the Stander Symposium occurred on the same day. Although it may seem like quite a lot to pack into one single day, Spina and the university said there was certainly a reason for it.
“The Stander Symposium has been going on for many years,” Spina said. “What we’ve done is wrapped giving day around it. Really, our students drive it, and our students are at the heart of all that we do. We asked our students to think about how we could have a day of celebration and discovery, and this is what has happened as a result.”
This turned out to be a fruitful idea as the $3.4 million raised is the most the University of Dayton has raised from One Day, One Dayton, and that number can certainly still climb higher. With the students the focus of the day, potential donors were undoubtedly influenced by the extensive research the undergraduates have completed.
Events like One Day, One Dayton aid students as they undertake a new chapter in their life as they enter college. Without the generosity of donors, students like Herceg and Vaccaro would have a more difficult time completing their research and experiments, and scholarships for undergraduates wouldn’t be as readily available.
With the kickstart of the We Soar comprehensive fundraising campaign, the University of Dayton clearly aims to change the lives of incoming students as well as current undergraduates and look to the future with anticipation for what’s to come next. This, coupled with giving day and the Stander Symposium, made the events of April 19 one for the UD history books.
"The Flyer spirit is really alive here on campus,” Spina said. “It’s wonderful to see generations of Flyers here together, learning together and really thinking about supporting the future students of UD.”
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