The Georgetown University Alumni Association praised the progress of renovations to the Alumni House and the university’s selection of a new vice president for alumni and university relations during a meeting with administration and student representatives last week.

The four-day Fall Leadership Engagement Weekend was one of three planned meetings of GUAA’s Board of Directors this year. Administration officials on hand included University President John J. DeGioia and newly-installed Vice President for Alumni and University Relations James Langley, who left his post as vice chancellor for external relations at the University of California at San Diego.

The major accomplishment discussed during the convention was the ongoing renovation of the Robert and Bernice Wagner Alumni House, which is near completion. The Alumni House is scheduled to reopen later this month.

GUAA Executive Director Bill Reynolds (COL ’79) called the renovation project “an outstanding team effort.”

“[The Alumni House] will be a place were we can communicate tradition, accomplishments, ambition and educate alumni on how to engage and more deeply connect back to Georgetown,” Reynolds said.

The renovation cost $7.5 million and was funded entirely by alumni donations.

Langley, in his first meeting with GUAA since coming to Georgetown from the University of California at San Diego earlier this year, announced his plan to employ the use of student ambassadors to interact with alumni.

“Using student ambassadors is a great idea,” Reynolds said. “Alumni love interacting with students and it is a powerful source of connection to the academic mission of [Georgetown] as well as a connection to the future of the Alumni Association.”

Members of the Board of Governors offered praise for Langley.

“I feel he has, in a very short time, developed a keen sense of Georgetown’s unique needs as both a Jesuit university and leading research institution,” said D. Pierce Nixon (SFS ’08), a student member of the Alumni Board.

“The association is very impressed with Jim Langley and believes he’s the right man at the right time,” Reynolds said. He added that he expects Langley to build on the results of the Third Century Campaign, which was designed to increase the university’s endowment and fund new construction projects.

GUAA also discussed making the sciences the next area of expansion for the university. University plans call for a new science center as early as 2011.

Attendees at the meeting also discussed record-setting fundraising for the Alumni Fund and the passage of a resolution congratulating students and community members for their outpouring of assistance for victims of Hurricane Katrina.