FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Student callers employed by the University of Arkansas National Phone Campaign will celebrate the opening of the new campus phone center with a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception at 5:30 p.m. today.

The National Phone Campaign moved into the recently renovated University House, the new home of the Office of University Development. The NPC’s new facility is now much more technologically advanced thanks in part to a gift from Staples, Inc., based in Framingham, Mass.

After a day of classes, students employed by the Annual Fund National Phone Campaign work hard into the evening to contact alumni and friends nationwide for two reasons: to share information about what’s happening on campus and to seek private gift support for the University of Arkansas. At times, there may be between 40-50 students working for the NPC.

The gift allows the NPC to move to a computerized system and make substantial changes to the way it conducts business. The new phone center features individual calling stations, equipped with a computer terminal, monitor and headset, where students are able to access call lists and enter important information back into the system. The new system is more efficient and stream-lined, allowing a greater number of alumni to be contacted each year. Before the upgrades, callers wrote out information obtained during calls, including when alumni and friends made pledges to the University. Then, all the data would have to input into the Development database at the end of the evening. Other improvements include partitions between each caller, which aid in noise reduction.

The NPC considers themselves to be University ambassadors and take pride in their efforts to raise funds for causes they hold dear: scholarships, new computers and software to name a few.

Student caller Virginia Hentschel, said, "Working for the National Phone Campaign is a good opportunity for students to talk to alums, hear about stories from when they were here and to help those same alums get caught up on current events, campus construction and their respective colleges. It’s also great the way we get to help the university."

NPC will be sharing the new phone center with Enrollment Services student ambassadors and students of the UA Honors College charged with recruiting students to the University of Arkansas.

During the 2001-2002 fiscal year the callers raised $546,712 for academic support programs.