By JP Pelzman
Jon Paparsenos knows first-hand the kind of name recognition a successful men’s basketball program can bring to a university. And he got a reminder of that when he literally was on the other side of the world.
Prior to returning to his alma mater, Seton Hall, Paparsenos’ previous job was at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. But the people he spoke to Down Under already knew all about the Pirates of South Orange due to one man, three-point specialist Andrew Gaze of the 1988-89 Final Four team. Gaze is considered one of the greatest players in that country’s history.
“People in Australia knew who Seton Hall was because of Gaze,” Paparsenos, Seton Hall’s Vice President for University Advancement, told PirateCrew. “And people would ask, ‘Oh, how’s the Business School and would look at Seton Hall a little more seriously. “So, from any standpoint,” Paparsenos added, “that program can help the university.”
That is only one of many reasons why it is so important that the school put into motion in the coming years one of its most important capital projects, the construction of a new basketball practice facility.
“We really need that facility,” Paparsenos said, “to come up to par and put us on equal footing with the other Big East schools.
“That is something that Coach (Kevin) Willard has been asking about for a number of years for a number of reasons,” Paparsenos noted. “It’s not only about the competitive aspect for the existing program, and us wanting to be a perennial top 25 team. Basketball is one of the areas that really enhances the student experience and is one of the pride points.”
Prior to his time in Australia as vice president and CEO of the UNSW Foundation, Paparsenos, a member of the swimming team during his undergraduate days, worked for two universities here in the U.S. He was senior director of development at Big East rival Marquette from 2007-13 and executive director of development at Cal Tech from 2013-16.
But when the job at The Hall opened up, the pull of coming home was quite strong for the 1999 graduate.
“I've been doing this for 18 years,” he said. “If this position ever opened, I wanted it. You want to come to a place you’re familiar with and you had a great experience at.
“But,” he added, “you want to make sure that the leadership and all the components are effective for you to be successful as well.”
Paparsenos, who began his tenure on Nov. 2, 2020, quickly found those attributes once he interviewed with Seton Hall President Dr. Joseph Nyre.
“I've worked with a lot of presidents and some of them were really good,” he noted, “but I've never worked with a president who is so strategic in his thinking and gets advancement so well. In just 11 months, we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount together and I am very grateful for Dr. Nyre’s leadership”
“And he just makes the job so enjoyable,” Paparsenos added. "Those are the components you want to see, a strategic thinker that is going to be supportive and also keeping you accountable and that’s what he does.”
Paparsenos also has found advantages in fund-raising for his alma mater.
“You can relate to it more,” he said of speaking to potential donors who are fellow alums. “You can say, ‘Yeah, I remember the time when I did this.’ For instance, I had Coach (Mike) Sheppard in my freshman year as one my advisors. Hearing stories about Coach Sheppard, I can really relate and I can share my own little anecdotes as well.
“At other universities,” he added, “it’s something you can build and share, but those are more professional experiences that build over time. I could really hit the ground running here with my stories.”
Besides a love of Seton Hall, Paparsenos has something else in common with Sheppard, the legendary Pirates baseball coach who passed away in 2019 and amassed 998 victories in his career in South Orange. Both were Marines, and Paparsenos believes that experience has helped him in his civilian field.
“In the Marine Corps,” he said, “you’re only as good as the weakest link. You try to bring the entire team together and that’s what I've tried to bring to my work here is that for us to accomplish what we need to accomplish in the division of advancement, we need to work as one team and accomplish shared goals.”
The former Marine sergeant said his service there “teaches you leadership and a lot of critical thinking, problem solving and not being complacent, for sure. Everybody has bigger problems than you, so just get on with your work.”
Still, there is more work to be done. Seton Hall still is behind comparable universities in terms of alumni contributions.
“The university has, primarily through athletics and primarily through basketball, engaged a number of our donors and a number of our alums,” Paparsenos explained. “From a Big East standpoint and from a national standpoint, we are behind.”
And that’s where, for Paparsenos, that Marine training comes in. He simply is focused on the task at hand, as opposed to worrying about the past.
“So, we’ve done great work in specific pockets but there’s more work ahead of us,” he said. “Absolutely, it’s a point of emphasis for Dr. Nyre as well, we want to build more pride, more of an alumni community, to help the students primarily but to keep more of a network going. You don’t stop when you graduate. … We just have to live that a little bit more.”
As for those who want to donate, Paparsenos recommends checking out the Seton Hall website at advancement.shu.edu/home and added that he and his team of approximately 40 people “would be happy at any time to have any conversation any alum would want to have about donating.”
Part 2 to follow
