I think the Rutgers Club is serving an important role as it exists now. I think they could use more space and enhance their experience and event offerings. I think providing Rutgers Club with expanded facilities would provide them with more options. But I wouldn't expand their role much beyond their primary mission as it stands now. They should focus on a great club atmosphere for daily and semi-regular use by students/staff/faculty/alumni. Their occasional special event offerings could be expanded - for instance game day activities - but the more substantial alumni events should be generated by RUAA and the schools. In other words, they can be better at what they do now but they shouldn't try to be something they're not.
I think the ideal vision is similar to what you laid out. I'd love to see a dedicated alumni space that houses the Rutgers Club, meetings spaces, catering/event spaces. The Hall of Distinguished Alumni plaques could be displayed in a central lobby area but I wouldn't create a special space for them. But again the question I have is whether the demand matches that vision. Also you have to figure out the location that makes the most business sense.
I think it's easy to get swept up in the allure of a big shiny facility that looks like others but I'm just saying you need to stop and look at what is actually the most effective strategy. An alumni center may give lots of alumni a warm and fuzzy feeling and create an aura of incredible alumni activity (which honestly I think many of the peer facilities do and that's probably part of the intent when they were built) but they still need to make strategic sense for the university.
In terms of a private club operator, I wouldn't want someone like ClubCorp coming in to take over the Rutgers Club. They are a huge operation nationwide and know how to run private clubs but they would be most interested in expanding membership and increasing their revenue. While you might think increased membership would be a boon for the university that's not necessarily the case. Having someone like ClubCorp would make it much less like a Rutgers entity and much more like a private business club as it focuses on revenue. I wouldn't rule it out entirely. You could theoretically contract with them to manage the day-to-day operations but maintain a Rutgers Club leadership structure to help drive strategy and maintain a Rutgers focus.
