Clark Atlanta to sell commemorative bricks for scholarship fund

Clark Atlanta University is borrowing on a 1996 Atlanta Olympic committee’s ideal by selling customized bricks to raise $200,000 for the school’s scholarship fund.

This weekend, while alumni from all over the country were in town for the Clark Atlanta’s homecoming and 20th anniversary, the alumni association unveiled the plan.

“Everything we do, we want to reengage our alumni base and bring them home,” said Aristide Collins, vice president for university development. “A good university can’t exist without an active and contributing alumni.”

In 11 months, school officials hope to sell 2,000 of the 5-by-8-inch bricks to alumni, students and friends of CAU, alumni coordinator Gaylin Jasho said. “I wanted to open it up to people related to CAU,” Jasho said.

The bricks can be ordered for $100 each and can be inscribed with donors’ names or other messages. They will be laid in the courtyard of the Albert H. Watts Alumni House on campus.

Bricks will go down in two installations – in April preceding the May graduation weekend, and next September in time for next year’s homecoming.

Emma Morris, in town over the weekend from St. Louis, was on hand Friday when the first bricks went on sale.

“I’m definitely getting one,” she said. “I’ve got to support my school.”

CAU was formed in August 1988 when historically black universities Atlanta University and Clark College merged.

Collins said he has no doubt about the amount of support the school will receive for the program.

“We’ve got at least 25,000 alumni,” he said, “but it’s not necessarily about the money, but about the sense of building community.”