Crimson Callers, an organization under the OU Foundation that facilitates financial gifts and support from OU alums, will be dissolved on June 21, leaving upward of 40 students out of work.
According to a current Crimson Callers employee who requested to remain anonymous due to fear of career repercussions, the call center is being dissolved after a “strategic analysis” was run on the call center that resulted in reallocating its funding to other areas of the OU Foundation.
In an April 30 email to OU Daily from Jana Moring, assistant vice president of communications and donor services, Guy Patton, president and CEO of OU Foundation, wrote that the call center’s dissolution is part of a trend among universities across the nation.
“Like many universities and foundations across the country, we are shifting away from traditional fundraising tactics toward more relationship-based, donor-centered approaches that reflect the changing expectations of alumni and supporters,” Patton wrote.
Patton wrote the OU Foundation is grateful for the work done by Crimson Callers and has provided support for student callers as they transition into new jobs.
“We are deeply grateful to the students who contributed to the success of the program over the years,” Patton wrote. “Recognizing their important role, we provided current student callers with advance notice and support as they transitioned from the program.”
Patton wrote that the OU Foundation thought it’d be best to dissolve the center due to the toll of training new callers each fall to adjust for the yearly turnover of callers who graduate or go into internships.
“The OU Foundation remains committed to fostering strong relationships with alumni, donors, and the broader OU community to advance the University of Oklahoma’s mission,” Patton wrote.
According to the employee, the evaluation was led by Marty Wold, assistant vice president for annual giving and alumni engagement at the OU Foundation. Wold’s involvement was further confirmed by Sam Bird, a first-year computer science doctoral student and student supervisor at Crimson Callers.
OU Daily reached out to Wold for comment three times over email and once over the phone on the dissolution. OU Daily has not heard back by the time of this article’s publication.
The dissolution announcement came to call center staff on April 21, which, according to the employee, caught student leadership and employees off guard.
“We were told by our manager that effective that day — (and) earlier, she found out on the spot, no conversations had — the call center would be dismantled, at which point she then told us … the call center was going to be dismantled, which then she immediately told callers that the call center was going to be dismantled,” the employee told OU Daily on April 24.
According to the employee, the dissolution came after the sudden resignation of Bob Amico, former executive director of annual giving, in early March. The reason for Amico’s resignation is unknown, but according to the employee, he is remembered by Crimson Callers staff as a major advocate and defender of Crimson Callers’ work.
According to Bird, Wold was the direct superior of Amico.
OU Daily reached out to Amico for comment on the dissolution and was directed to OU Foundation’s voicemail.
According to the employee, students in supervisor and other management roles are being reassigned within the OU Foundation. However, all students will be out of work by June 21.
“Everyone that's losing a job is a student,” the employee said. “Every single person there that will not be employed is a student.”
Luke Green, a creative media production and film and media studies junior and caller at the Crimson Callers, said the call center’s dissolution has greatly impacted him and his future.
“It definitely is a little world-shaking because I was going to work there during the summer, …” Green said. “I was going to apply to be a higher position in there. But, I think just at the end of the day, some doors close and some open.”
When reflecting on his time at Crimson Callers, Green said his experiences connecting with alums have been some of his best memories there.
“It was just reconnecting with alumni who probably just haven't heard from us in a long time, and even then, it was still really cool to hear about (where) their experiences with the university has led them (and) kind of get some advice,” Green said.
“I loved what I did.”
Brody Alexander, a management information systems senior and supervisor at Crimson Callers, said the call center gave him friends and stability.
“I was able to support my entire living expenses — my rent payment, food, all that stuff — off of the call center,” Alexander said. “I was able to make a lot of friends there. A lot of the people I hang out with just in my free time now are the people I've met at the call center.”
Alexander transferred to OU his sophomore year from the University of Central Oklahoma, where he studied criminology. Alexander said Crimson Callers helped him get connected with the OU community after transferring.
“I liked being able to meet and get to know as many people as I could at OU, and it was good seeing people on campus,” Alexander said. “I really enjoyed the job, and while it was a college job, it did have some sort of significance to me.”
According to Alexander, between 30 and 40 people will lose their jobs at the call center due to the dissolution — all of whom are students.
Alongside the dissolution, the university is rolling out the integration of an artificial intelligence bot named “Rose.” Rose is designed to, along with full-time staff, conduct the duties of student Crimson Callers following the dissolution’s completion on June 21, according to the employee.
In an interview with OU Daily, Bird said the integration of AI into the call center could undermine the value of student interaction with alums.
“The most impactful thing that we do at the call center is allow the people that we speak to to connect with a real OU student, …” Bird said. “That experience is being replaced with a chatbot, … and to suggest that having that chatbot reach out to others (is) going to provide the same level of connection, it's frankly ludicrous to me.”
According to Bird, along with facilitating financial support from alums, Crimson Callers handles other extremely sensitive information from alums, such as alums writing the university into their wills and leaving their bodies to OU for scientific study. Regarding these sensitive matters, Bird said he struggles to understand the rationale of integrating AI into Crimson Callers.
“There is a lot of value in the OU experience, and I think that's why we have been so successful in the past in reaching out to people like that,” Bird said. “So I struggle to see the rationale behind introducing this AI chatbot in lieu of actual students reaching out.”
Alexander said he does not think integrating AI into Crimson Callers is a good idea.
“It's a bad idea. What the call center does is we reach out to OU alumni, … and when we reach out to these alumni, we're forming connections with them,” Alexander said. “We're introducing a relationship between OU and the prospect that hopefully leads to a deeper relationship, …
“I just don't think an AI can do that.”
Alexander said alums often connect with student callers over sensitive matters in a therapeutic way, something he thinks students can handle better than AI.
Alexander said he thinks the call center will raise less money if AI interactions are prioritized over student interactions.
“I honestly think the foundation is going to see a lot less gifts coming in through AI than they would see through the call,” Alexander said. “It's AI, it's not a person. They're not able to form that personal connection, and I don't think people are going to enjoy that.”
Green said that despite the call center closing, he and other employees are all moving forward together.
“As much as the overall situation is a bit sad, I think that's what life is like,” Green said. “These things happen.”
Bird said he hopes his time at the call center has been as impactful as it was on him.
“The call center has been such a big part of life the past nearly four years. I'm just sad to see it end,” Bird said. “But we’ve got some really great people there, and hopefully, we've made an impact on some alumni.”
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Ismael Lele and Ana Barboza. Gretchen Schultz and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
