Baumgardner Event Remarks

September 5, 2007

 

 

Thank you for joining us today for this special event.  We are here to dedicate the office suite occupied by the Rebel Yell, our student newspaper, to the memory of Ryan Baumgardner.  While at UNLV, Ryan was a staff writer and the sports editor for the Rebel Yell.  He also was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, serving as pledge educator.  He earned his BS in Business Administration and Marketing in the spring of 2005.  Today is a culmination of Ryan’s achievements and of his family’s generosity.

 

First, to Bill and Nancy, Ryan’s parents, and to Bret, Ryan’s brother, I want thank you for your friendship over the last two years.  I’ve enjoyed getting to know you better, remembering Ryan, and partnering with you to appropriately honor his memory; And thank you for making the trip from Florida for this special event. 

 

To friends of the Baumgardner Family who have joined us, thank you for making the time to be here today.

 

To all of the friends and family members – many of whom could not be here - that are golfers and who have supported the tournament to raise funds for this dedication over the last two years, thank you for your time and treasure because they have helped to make these ideas realities.

 

We are here today in our new Student Union, surrounded by reminders of the many remarkable students like Ryan who get involved in the life of the university.  We are on the eve of a special and historic occasion in UNLV’s history.  As many of you know, tomorrow we will officially dedicate this new student union, which has been many years in the making.  We’re here today, the day before the building’s formal dedication, because we wanted to have some time before all of tomorrow’s excitement to gather privately and celebrate this tribute to Ryan with his family and friends. 

 

For the last several years, we have been planning the specifics of each and every room in this building – from square footage to ceiling height to which carpet swatch seemed best.  And getting to know this building as intimately as I have, I would like to think that there is a lot of space in this building with “Personality.”  

 

But the space that will bear Ryan’s name - the Rebel Yell Office Suite upstairs – will undoubtedly have some real “Personality.” 

 

With Ryan’s name and memory now a part of the Rebel Yell Suite for the lifetime of this building, the Rebel Yell will continue true to its history to be “rebellious.” 

 

When you are in those bright and open rooms in that suite upstairs, it is easy to forget that, before this building, Ryan and the other writers on the Rebel Yell staff  worked next door in dark, crowded quarters in the basement of the Flora Dungan Humanities building or “FDH,” a building that was opened in the 1970s.  But that didn’t stop editors and writers like Ryan from being bright, lively, funny, and spirited while they generated and shared ideas, and wrote and edited.      

 

With this dedication today and the subsequent mounting of the plaque, the Rebel Yell Suite will go from a numbered office to a space marked by the characteristics that Ryan possessed, such as originality, creativity, substance and fierce independence. 

 

       We’ve designed a great space upstairs that will be a second home for other unique, independent-minded, and outspoken journalists for many years to come.

  

        Some of you may not realize that the Baumgardner family has actually made two different commitments to UNLV.  The first is to name the physical space upstairs in Ryan’s memory.  With this afternoon’s event, The Rebel Yell Suite is hereby dedicated in Ryan’s memory for the lifetime of this building.    

 

The second commitment is a gift that will exist beyond the lifetime of the building.  The family has made a commitment to fully fund an endowed scholarship in Ryan’s name, which will exist in perpetuity.  

 

            The endowment that is created will generate interest each year that will be awarded to a UNLV student in support of his or her education.  The income from the endowment fund is what will be used to support the         scholarship, but the principle of the fund remains untouched, thus providing on-going support.   

 

            UNLV relies on this kind of support to attract and retain the best students and to enable many of our students to afford a college education.  

 

            Bill has been very successful planning and managing an annual golf tournament that has generated much of the money that has gone toward these commitments to date, and its success – determined by the large number of  friends and family that have participated – helped the family to make the determination that they had the support to make these two commitments to be fully funded within the next several years. 

 

            Today is a special opportunity for us to celebrate Ryan’s life, and it is an opportunity for us to celebrate the generosity of the Baumgardners, other family members, and family friends. 

 

            Ryan was a special young man with loyal friends and a loving family.  And we are so happy that his family and their friends have become such great friends to UNLV.  

 

            We are pleased to have Ryan as a graduate of the university, and - Bill and Nancy - we’re thankful for our continued friendship with your family.