Alumni Council Corner | October 2026

Greetings, Pioneer friends!

It’s a new school year and the Alumni Council has already hit the ground running. At our first meeting we were delighted to welcome four new members: Alicia Cruz ’99, Nicholas Helminski ’19, Kris (Grunow) Ricigliano ’85 and Laura Smith ’00. We are deeply grateful to all of our members for dedicating their time and talent to supporting our alma mater. Council membership now spans sixty years of Carroll history, and I treasure the unique perspective and energy each member brings to the Council’s work.

For those who may not be familiar with us, the Alumni Council is the representative body of Carroll's more than 23,000 alumni. We advise the university on alumni engagement, serve as ambassadors for Carroll, select the Distinguished Alumni and Graduate of the Last Decade award recipients, interview and choose Student Alumni Ambassadors, and help plan and promote alumni events. We want the council to reflect the full breadth of our alumni community across class years, geography, backgrounds and experiences. If you would like to join us, you can find the application process at carrollu.edu/alumni/alumni-council. Letters of interest are due to the Office of Alumni Engagement by April 30, 2027.

Homecoming, Reunion and Family Weekend runs October 8 through 11, and I hope to see many of you there. Council members will be volunteering throughout the weekend, so keep an eye out for us and please say hello. The schedule and registration are at carrollu.edu/alumni/homecoming.

If you haven't been back to campus lately, there are a lot of new things to check out. On September 3, Carroll dedicated the new home of The Von Hoff College of Health Sciences, transforming the former Randall Elementary School into a modern space for health sciences teaching and hands-on learning. And over on Barstow, ground has been broken on The Sullivan School of Business, Engineering and Technology, a 55,000-square-foot building with an innovation center, an engineering lab and a 300-seat auditorium, serving programs that range from computer science and artificial intelligence to aviation science. Both projects are part of the university's $52.5 million investment in campus facilities.

Finally, there is more cause for celebration: in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, Carroll placed No. 20 among 176 Regional Universities in the Midwest. Within that group, Carroll also ranked No. 9 among Best Colleges for Veterans, No. 10 among Best Value Schools and No. 15 in the Top Private Colleges category, which U.S. News introduced for the first time this year.

As you can see, there are many reasons to visit campus and countless ways to get involved with today’s Carroll. I hope to see you around!

Go Pios!