Syracuse University

By Paula Meseroll

Providing entertaining and educational activities for SU in DC Alumni Club members is Marc Beckel’s goal as club president. “We’ve planned theater events, tailgating parties, and such informational offerings as a home buying seminar,” says Beckel, a 1995 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We want to make sure we have things going on for our members to come together and be Orange.”

A program manager for defense contractor Northrup Grumman, Beckel became president of the alumni club in March, fulfilling the term of the former president Katherine Hatch ’06, who relocated. He also informally serves as the club’s director of athletics and coaches the co-ed softball team.

Sporting events play a major role in the club’s activities, and are not limited to merely spectator sport, such as cheering on the Orange during Georgetown games. The SU in DC Alumni Club participates in the Capitol Alumni Network, an organization with more than 200 affiliated alumni chapters, which sponsors co-ed sports leagues. During the course of the year, there are five different sports leagues—flag football in the fall, basketball and volleyball in the winter, soccer in the early spring, and softball mid-spring to summer. “We play everybody from Cal Berkeley to Duke, to Virginia Tech, and others,” Beckel says. “For the past few years, we’ve been organizing a regular season softball tournament where we play against all the other New York chapters. This year, it’s Syracuse, Cornell and St. Bonaventure. Whoever has the most wins gets to take home the New York Cup.”

Belonging to the SU in DC Alumni Club offers a number of benefits, according to Beckel. “Above all, it brings our alumni together and reinforces that common bond between us,” he says. “In a city like D.C., you can meet various groups of people from all walks of life. But it’s important to me to have my connection back to my university, to those experiences I had at Syracuse for four years, and to be active in celebrating all things Syracuse.”

A Southern California native, Beckel finds D.C. a fascinating place to live. “It’s a melting pot city, with people from all over the world,” he says. “But at the same time, we’re one of the cities with a high number of SU alumni, so almost every day I see signs of Syracuse, whether it be an SU bumper sticker, a license plate, a hat or sweatshirt. It’s neat to see how many people here really do bleed Orange.”

The SU in DC Alumni Club has about 300 dues-paying members, and any SU alum can join the club for a $15 annual membership fee. Registration is available on the SUinDC.org website. “We’ve had an increase in our club membership numbers,” Beckel says. “That’s something we want to continue to focus on and to build on that trend.”