Alumni Relations Office opens new campus location

Liberty University’s Office of Alumni Relations held an official ribbon cutting for its new home at the Montview Student Union at the heart of campus on Monday morning.

The office, previously located in the Candlers Station Shopping Center, is now readily accessible from the Academic Lawn (the end of Montview closest to the Freedom Tower). The office will be open to welcome alumni during campus events such as Homecoming and College for a Weekend (CFAW) and for regular check-ins during the week.

“Our No. 1 objective is to engage,” said Dr. Greg Tilley, director of alumni engagement. “We are charged to engage with our over 300,000 alumni. That’s quite a task. Every day we come up with ways to connect with, reach out to, and thank alumni for being a part of Liberty. At some point in their life, they chose Liberty. Our No. 1 job is to thank them and see how we can serve them. That looks like different things for different people, but our No. 1 is to serve our alumni community.”

Other university leaders present at the event included Brett Riley, vice president for Development and Alumni Engagement, and Chancellor Jonathan Falwell.

Riley opened the ceremony by welcoming those in attendance and noting the importance of bringing the office to a central location on main campus.

“It’s crazy to think that this office was at an off-campus shopping center, and here we are at the heart of campus,” he said. “I don’t know when it’s going to be, 10-15 years from now, when the amount of impactful programing has doubled and our staff has quadrupled, at some point we will remember that it started here… I don’t know when this time will come, but there will come a time where people around the country will talk about the work that is getting done in this office. It will be because it started with Greg and his staff.”

Falwell likewise shared about how he has seen the university and campus grow since its inception and emphasized the importance of a dedicated space to welcome alumni.

“To be able to connect with them because of the early days, the middle days, the now days, and the future days of being able to have individuals who can talk about the special moments where God did incredible things in their lives here will in turn allow us to activate them to be a part of what happens here so we can make a difference until Jesus returns,” he said.

Tilley said that central to all the office provides, from resources and events, the office exists to show gratitude and support for Liberty alumni across the globe. “We call Liberty our alma mater, but at Liberty, we also say ‘alma mater’ means ‘alumni matter.’”

He said that while the office serves as a home for visiting alumni, its prime location near multiple academic buildings also allows the staff to engage students, who will one day be alumni themselves.

Alumni are invited to connect with their alma mater through their local alumni chapter as well as the Liberty Alumni Community social platform, which features a job board, prayer board, and directory through which alumni can connect with fellow graduates, explore mentoring opportunities, and leverage their professional networks. The platform currently boasts over 33,000 users.

For more information, call (800) 628-7973 or email alumni@liberty.edu.