ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú

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Podcast: S8 Ep. 24
Date: September 03, 2025
Title: LU Moment: Red Day 2025 aims to "Raise the Red" | S8 Ep. 24
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú faculty, staff, students and alumni. I'm John Rollins, associate director of community relations and public affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. Red Day is back, and I've got two very special guests here with me today to tell us all about it. Uliana Trylowski is the associate vice president for University Advancement here at LU and Aron Arceneaux is our annual giving officer. Thank you both for joining me today on the LU Moment, and welcome to the show.

ULIANA TRYLOWSKY: Thank you. It's great to be here.

ARON ARCENEAUX: Yes, it is my first time. I'm excited.

JOHN: Oh, we have a first timer!

ULIANA: Yeah.

JOHN: Well, you’ve been here quite a few times.

ULIANA: I’ve been here a lot.

JOHN: Welcome, Aron.

AARON: Thank you. Happy to be here.

JOHN: So, Aron, Red Day, correct me if I’m wrong, but this is kind of your brain child. Your baby from 2021?

ARON: Yes, it’s my baby. Red Day is my baby, yeah. It started in 2021 when my former boss, Jeff, said, “LU doesn’t really have an official day of giving, and we need to get that started. That’s going to be your top priority.” So, I took it and ran with it. I got a lot of feedback from people I met at conferences, picked up some great ideas, and now Red Day is back for its fifth year.

JOHN: Now, this is five years. So, 2021—did you think it would be gaining momentum like it has? You probably hoped, right?

AARON: Yeah, for sure, I hoped. And yeah, truly, I did know that it was going to be super successful, and it’s gotten even better and better every year.

ULIANA: It really has.

ARON: So it really is exciting.

JOHN: So do you want to give a brief, kind of broad overview of what Red Day is? And then later on, we’ll talk about the challenges. We’ll go a little deeper into everything, but just a brief overview for now.

ARON: Yeah, so Red Day, in a nutshell, is our annual 24-hour day of giving. We ask the entire LU community—alumni, friends of LU, faculty, staff, students, even listeners of this podcast—to make a gift to an area of campus that’s most important to them. For example, for me personally, I like to give to the College of Fine Arts and Communication. That’s where I got my BS, and that’s also where I met my wife. So it means a lot to us. That’s where my family likes to give. But the idea is that everyone gives to the area that’s most meaningful to them. And like you mentioned, there are prizes, challenges, and matches throughout the day. It truly is an exciting time. This year, it’s 24 hours, specifically, September 18 starting at noon, ending at noon on the 19. We always try to place it around LU’s Founding Day, September 17. Fun fact: in 2021, our very first year, it actually fell right on Founding Day, which was awesome. Next year it’ll be back on Founding Day, so I’m really excited about that. We’ve already got some ideas in the works, so definitely be on the lookout for that next year.

JOHN: And, you know, September 17 is one of those dates that’s just forever etched into my mind after we had Centennial Fest in 2023.

ULIANA: Exactly right.

JOHN: One hundred years of LU. So that’s definitely a date to keep in the back of your mind every year. Let’s back up a little bit and have you both officially introduce yourselves. Uliana, we’ll start with you, and then we’ll come back to Aaron for his introduction as well. So, tell us more about yourself.

ULIANA: Well, I’ve been at ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú for 10 years now. I first joined as a major gifts officer and worked in that role for a decade. Then earlier this year, when Jeff Spoeri left, I stepped into the associate vice president position in an interim capacity. On July 1, I was officially named AVP for Advancement, and I’ve really been enjoying the position—it’s been a great experience so far. Before coming to Lamar, I worked in all kinds of nonprofit roles, from Habitat for Humanity to the Southeast Texas Arts Council. And I’ve been in the area for—hard to believe—over 27 years now.

JOHN: Wow. Yeah, we're glad to have you. And I know when I originally met you, I think you were at Habitat. You were there a pretty good while.

ULIANA: Yeah, I was there for 11 years.

JOHN: We’re glad it led you over to LU. Yeah, you’ve got that fundraising background, and you know how nonprofits work, right?

ULIANA: Yeah, we know that—John, don’t we?

JOHN: We know that really well.

ULIANA: Definitely.

JOHN:  So, Aron, what about you?

ARON: Yeah, so I started working at Lamar back in 2016 and have dabbled in various departments on campus. I started in student recruitment and admissions, then transitioned to student retention and student success, and now I’m in advancement. I did leave for a short period in 2022, but I’m officially back and really happy to be here—I started again in March of this year. Before that, I worked at Lamar State College–Port Arthur for about four years, starting in financial aid and eventually becoming the director of enrollment services. It was a really fun experience. So my higher education experience has been… gosh, going on 12 years now. That’s crazy.

ULIANA: Yeah, and we're glad to have him back.

JOHN: I’ll say you left a legacy when you left, because people mentioned Aron Arceneaux to me. We’re glad to have you back in a similar capacity as well.

ARON: Thank you. Thank you.

JOHN: So, Uliana, let me ask you this, why do you think an event like Red Day is so important for ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú?

ULIANA: It’s really important because it’s a great way to showcase ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú. Whenever you have an event like this—a 24-hour, exciting push for giving—it creates a heightened level of excitement. We talk a lot about different areas of the university, build momentum, and challenge people to give. Obviously, we want to encourage people to make gifts to ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú—that’s the goal. But we also want them to remember Lamar and think of it as the jewel it is in Southeast Texas. So many great things have been happening on campus in the last few years—it’s just been really exciting. For people who don’t see it every day the way we do, it’s a great reminder and a chance to reconnect with Lamar and see all it has to offer, especially alumni. Sometimes alumni drift away and don’t really know what’s going on at their alma mater, and we really want them to come back and see today’s Lamar. It’s a great place.

JOHN: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. You know, it’s kind of—we’re weaving that connection between everybody and just getting the good word out there that Lamar needs support, just like everybody else, right?

ARON: Yeah, for sure.

JOHN: So, Aron, go ahead and tell us—let’s dive a little deeper into Red Day. Obviously, you’re pretty much serving as the host, right?

ARON: Yeah, yeah. So we’re trying something different this year. In past years, we’ve done a live broadcast and things like that, but this year we’re really focusing on social media and boosting that engagement piece. We’re not really emphasizing a live broadcast; instead, we’re hoping that being more active and interactive on social media will drive that engagement.

JOHN: Correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t been too involved in the planning this year, but doesn’t each college kind of put together a video to highlight everything that’s going on in their areas?

ARON: Yeah, so throughout the day, we’re going to have time blocks for each academic college on campus. All five academic colleges will have their own ‘power hours,’ if you will, where we’ll highlight various students within those colleges. The dean will have a part in that, too. We’ll also have some challenges during those specific time blocks, and we’re working on a few other exciting plans that I don’t want to announce just yet, in case they don’t happen.

ULIANA: There will be surprises.

ARON: A lot of surprises to come with the prizes and challenges! We have various sponsors and donors who are willing to sponsor specific challenges. For example, one of the challenges is sponsored by the LU Foundation Board of Trustees—it’s called the Red Day Top Three Prize. Here’s how it works: the academic college that raises the most donors will get additional funding. One thing I forgot to mention about Red Day is that donor count is really what we’re pushing. We have a goal of 500 total donors, which we’ve reached every year except the first year—which is fine—but we’ve surpassed that goal every year since. I’m very confident we’ll continue to surpass it. So, back to the Top Three challenge: the college with the most donors on Red Day will receive extra funding from the Foundation Board of Trustees. For example, the top college gets an additional $3,000 on top of what they raise that day. Second place gets $2,000, and third place gets $1,000. That’s why we’re really striving. And listeners, we hope you’ll help us get that donor count up for the academic college that means the most to you so they can unlock that additional funding.

JOHN: So would either one of you like to speak to maybe what some of these funds help support on campus?

ULIANA: We like to keep it very general, which is why Aron was referring to the academic colleges. We don’t break down giving to specific departments or programs. The funds that are raised go to the colleges, and the deans use them where they see the greatest need. They can support students, faculty activities, or programs across campus.

JOHN: So these are definitely critical funds and like you said, it’s more about the donor goal rather than the dollars, right? Obviously, the dollars are super important, but it’s really about engaging those donors. I know last year there were over 550, right?

ARON: Yeah, it was 574, which is awesome.

JOHN: Over 570, okay.

AARON: So it was great. Yeah, hopefully next year we can raise the bar even more and maybe go for 600.

ULIANA: Like you guys said, it’s really about engaging the donors. We want people to come back to Lamar—maybe those who haven’t been giving or have kind of gone astray. We want them to reconnect, see what the university has to offer, and come back as friends of Lamar.

ARON: Yeah. And, you know, going back to what you said earlier on—there’s been so much growth, yeah? Just in the past three years—it’s crazy, but in a really great way.

ULIANA: What about Monday night? We were all out at the brand-new intramural field watching the marching band for the ribbon-cutting. I posted on social media that I thought it was a stunning field. When I first heard it was going to be built, I thought, “Okay, that’ll be neat,” but it’s amazing having it right there in the middle of campus. I drove by the other day and saw some football players practicing plays on it, and it just gives that great collegiate spirit—it’s alive. The campus feels vibrant. It’s just really neat, and it’s right next to the dorms, which is perfect.


ARON: And, you know, my parents—I think you met them when they were there—they were just in awe. They kept saying, “This is great. I can’t believe this is here.” It’s little things like that. There are so many things continuing to grow and pop up, which is incredible.

JOHN: Across the board—yeah, arts, athletics, all of it. So really quickly, let’s touch on your department. University Advancement is so important here at Lamar. Uliana or Aron, whoever, we can wrap up with that, and then we’ll go over the details of Red Day one last time before we close out.

ULIANA: So the Department of University Advancement is the arm of the university that basically raises money to support Lamar. We’re the people who help donors make gifts that create endowments, scholarships, and faculty fellowships. We work with people who want to give back and help make those gifts possible to support various areas of the university—student support, faculty support, equipment like lab equipment, athletics, and more. That’s what University Advancement does. By the way, John, I’d like to mention—if anyone has fundraising experience and wants to join the ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú family, we do have openings in the advancement office for major gifts officers. If you’re interested, you can check the LU website for that opening.

JOHN: All right, Aron, we’ll go ahead and close this out. Let’s give one last overview—date, time, location. Well, I guess it’s virtual –

ARON: It is virtual, however, one thing we’re going to try out this year for Red Day is having these little hot spots around campus. We encourage everyone to come to campus and see what’s been growing and why you’re here on Red Day. At these hot spots, you’ll be able to make your gifts by scanning a QR code or other fun ways like that. Red Day this year is the fifth year—crazy to even say that! It’s September 18 through 19, starting at noon and ending at noon. For more information, you can go to lamar.edu/redday. The site is officially live, which is awesome and exciting, so be sure to check it periodically for updates. I’ll be asking individuals to become Red Day Champions to help us spread the word. This year’s theme is ‘Raise the Red.’ We’re super excited about it, and I look forward to it.

JOHN: Uliana and Aron, thank you both for joining me today on the podcast, for sharing about Red Day, and for all you do in University Advancement. I know it’s a big job, but you both fill the shoes really well.

ULIANA: Thank you so much for having us.

ARON: Thanks, John.

JOHN: Awesome. Alright folks, that’s a wrap on this week’s episode. Don’t forget to save the date—Thursday, September 18, from noon to Friday, September 19 at noon. Visit lamar.edu/redday to learn more, and let’s Raise the Red! Make sure to search ‘LU Moment’ wherever you get your podcasts to keep up with the events, activities, programs, and people right here at ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we’ll talk to you next time.