Issue date: 1/27/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Stephen Fogg Eric Reed and Michael Schramm, members of Maroon Coats, stand for a portrait Sunday in the Hagler Center. Reed serves as the current president of Maroon Coats. [Click to enlarge]

In the fall semester, 16 students took off fraternal pins, Corps boots or painted overalls and slipped on a maroon coat. They were no longer serving a single student organization, but they were serving Texas A&M. The Maroon Coats were born.

Maroon Coats was the brainchild of A&M Foundation President and former A&M interim President Eddie J. Davis. When he returned to his role of Foundation president after serving as interim president between Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and President Elsa A. Murano, Davis wanted to create an organization to connect donors to students.

"He remembered the most beneficial thing for the University was the interaction between students and donors," said Maroon Coats Founder Michael Schramm, a senior economics major.

Davis spoke with then-Student Body President Conner Prochaska who recommended Schramm. They then took a vague idea, Schramm said, and worked up a proposal for an organization of top student leaders that would serve as the student body arm for the foundation.

The Maroon Coats serve as ambassadors for the school, and are able to spend the day with distinguished former students when they make the trip back to Aggieland.

Maroon Coats President Eric Reed, former head yell leader and senior agricultural business major, had the opportunity to take a Kuwait ambassador on a tour of campus. The ambassador donated a large amount toward the George Bush Presidential Library complex but had not been on campus since 1980.

"I got to show him the gates of Kuwait," Reed said.

There are two purposes to the Maroon Coats. The first is to benefit the University by raising funds.

"Generally that student touch gives [former students] that fire and incentive," Schramm said.

The second purpose, he said, is to attract the quality of student leadership needed to give students more bang for their buck. He said students are given the opportunity to network with accomplished former students in their prospective fields.

Schramm and Reed said they had the opportunity to reach out to a donor at the president's buffet before the Texas Tech football game. They sat next to the former student, not realizing he was a potential donor and shared stories about Aggieland. When the former student and his wife said they were leaving for the game, Reed and Schramm offered the couple a ride and drove them right up to the gate at Kyle field on a golf cart.

"He was very grateful and Sunday he contacted the [Foundation] development officer and decided to give a substantially larger gift," Schramm said.

He said moments like this remind him of a line that a development officer used for motivation: "People don't give to organizations, people give to people."

Maroon Coats member John Kovach, a junior agricultural economics major, reached out to a donor in a different fashion. He traveled to Corpus Christi to attend a funeral of the Heldenfels family, donors to the University responsible for the Heldenfels building.

"It was good to go back and show respect and establish a relationship," he said.

The original 16 members were selected through a nomination process and this semester will be the first formal recruitment for the organization.

Schramm said that even though the Maroon Coats included student leaders such as student body president, MSC President and Interfraternity Council President, the group does not want to discourage applicants.

"A lot of people think we're looking for titles," he said. "We're looking for something more than just the position they've held."

Schramm said Maroon Coats love A&M and want to share the experience with former students. There is no set membership number and the group includes certain ex-officio members such as the student body president.

"This isn't a program where you start," Schramm said. "This is a program where you finish."

He said it allows student leaders to take involvement one step further and provides an opportunity to serve after reaching the pinnacle of student leadership.

"Instead of benefiting your organization, you benefit the University," Schramm said.

Applications
Applications are due Wednesday and can be found at http://marooncoats.tamu.edu.

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