NEW YORK-It’s known as the city that never sleeps and is home to the Broadway theater district, Wall Street, Times Square and more than 22,000 Syracuse University alumni.

And tucked away on an upper east side block, which holds Barneys New York and a view of Central Park, is a small, rustic brick building that proudly hangs a giant orange flag with SU’s seal above a busy Manhattan street. This building is home to the Lubin House, the university’s presence in ‘the Big Apple.’

With a lusciously decorated interior, a broad array of functions, nine overnight rooms for faculty and staff that has recently grown to more than 20, the Lubin House sees a steady flow of SU students, faculty and alumni through its doors.

While the original purpose of the Lubin House was, in the words of former Chancellor William Tolley, to raise ‘alumni morale,’ it has evolved to serve more purposes and roles. Yet the goal has remained to be ‘a welcoming place, where they didn’t walk in the door and feel, ‘well, I better leave,” said Executive Director of Lubin House Operations Patricia Dombrowski.

Fundraising central

Keeping alumni in touch with the school is central to the latest role the old house has absorbed. It is becoming the university’s fundraising headquarters in a city where lots of SU graduates have plenty of money to donate to the chancellor’s upcoming fundraising campaign, which has an estimated goal of $1 billion. It will be unveiled on Nov. 2.

‘It’s a fairly new animal here at Lubin House,’ said Roslyn Black, director of corporate and foundation relations at Lubin House, of the fundraising focus. ‘It’s really growing.’

Black estimates that in the past, fundraising operations were only 20 percent of the Lubin House’s overall mission. ‘And now it is a pretty good percentage,’ she said.

New offices are being built for the campaign and an entire floor of the house will be solely for fundraising purposes, demonstrating the confidence SU is putting in its New York-based center.

‘A large part of the campaign will be won or lost in New York,’ said Thomas Walsh, senior vice president for institutional advancement at SU. ‘It will be critical.’

A $30 million investment from one of New York’s leading banks began with a conversation in the Chancellor’s Suite on an upper floor in the Lubin House. It was there that JPMorgan Chase’s senior vice president of global philanthropy, Kimberly Davis, was able to meet with SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor to discuss the programs that the money would fund.

‘It was a very nice way for them to describe these projects and this plan,’ Black said of the meeting. Black added that Davis didn’t have the time to go to Syracuse to meet with the chancellor, but she was able to make the shorter trip uptown.

And therein lies the value of the Lubin House: An SU presence in the city.

‘So much of our alumni base is in the New York City area,’ Black said. She believes the house will be used to host special events to attract donors throughout the campaign. The goal is to ‘encourage them to be involved,’ she said.

‘Lubin House is just central to everything we’re doing with the campaign,’ Walsh said.

An alumni watering hole

Recognition and awareness are struggles for the Lubin House. It is combated with efforts to contact alumni, encourage visits from professors and bring in students, both prospective and attending. Sometimes there is success; other times there is not.

‘We get a lot of, ‘I didn’t know this place existed,” Dombrowski, executive director, said.

But many times the house is discovered by passersby who notice the massive orange flag suspended above the entrance. Dombrowski has had alumni stop in just to use the bathroom, get a glass of water and, in one case, ask to sit in the lobby while his wife shopped at Barneys.

The Lubin House has even served as a watering hole for SU graduates. In the luscious 1870 Room off one of the house’s many winding staircases was the home of, simply, ‘the bar.’ Until it was removed during the latest round of remodeling, the bar provided alumni with a place to gather and enjoy ‘simple, affordable drinks,’ Dombrowski said.

‘It’s something alumni mention that they miss,’ said Jane Henn, senior director of New York Programs. ‘But it wasn’t being overly used, so when renovations went on, the priority was on space.’

Another sign of the evolving mission of the Lubin House.

A packed calendar

Space is in high demand. With more than 600 events hosted each year, there are few slow days.

Lynn Clarke is the senior director of events and faces the sometimes daunting task of setting up programs for anyone from the university who wants to host an event at the house. Events range from standard class sessions to formal dinners, seminars and workshops.

While the Admissions Department was the most frequent user in 2004-2005, the most recent year with available data, there are few sects of the university that don’t have some involvement with the house.

‘Everything we do here in some way reflects upon the university,’ Clarke said.

And sometimes there are events that have unique ties to SU.

In the summer of 2006, a movie, ‘Who Needs ‘Em?’ was shot in the Lubin House starring SU alumna Vanessa Williams, Clarke said. Other alumni produced the film and SU students served as interns on the set.

The most popular event for alumni is the ‘Second Wednesday at Lubin’ lecture series, which brings faculty and other leading speakers to deliver talks and host discussions on the latest topics from a variety of fields. Alumni can go and engage in the presentation at no cost.

‘It helps to get them re-engaged in the campus of Syracuse,’ Walsh, SU vice president, said. ‘The front door on 61st street opens up to Syracuse.’

The Hill next to Central Park

While SU alumni use the house to stay connected to the university 250 miles away, prospective students in the New York metro area use it to get acquainted with the Orange.

More than 470 prospective students interview with the admissions staff at the Lubin House, SU’s only satellite admissions headquarters in the nation, while the deans of many undergraduate colleges venture to the city to meet with high school seniors.

Yet the distance from campus is not an ignored obstacle.

‘One of the hard things for us, since we are not on campus, is we miss the effect of ‘being there,” said Amparo Silva, assistant director of admissions and financial aid at the house. She added that the admissions staff visits campus quite often.

Prospective students are shown a video to get the feel of campus, and some students have visited campus before they ever make it to the Lubin House, Silva said. She added there is an advantage for students applying from the New York City area because they have so many options during the application process.

A growing advantage

As director, Dombrowski knows the Lubin House is reliant on main campus for many services.

‘We’re not self-sufficient here,’ she said.

Some Lubin House employees have not even been to the university they represent. Dombrowski said her staff is always asking her to get them involved in a trip to campus.

And as the mission of the house evolves, the staff may receive that chance. Beyond the Tepper semester – a College of Visual and Performing Arts program that brings drama students to study Broadway up close – Dombrowski said she thinks there will be even more educational programs based out of the house.

‘What a great learning tool this is,’ she said. ‘Why not take advantage of it?’

Syracuse has taken advantage of its fortunate location in the heart of Manhattan.

‘I don’t know if we could ever purchase that real estate in today’s market,’ said Maria Russell, chairwoman of the public relations department, who stays at the house every January.

SU, along with most Ivy League universities and their famous Manhattan ‘clubs,’ is one of only a few universities with a base of operations in ‘the Big Apple.’

‘It gives us a competitive edge,’ Walsh said. ‘There is no doubt about it.’

Published on September 5, 2007 at 12:00 pm