Some Reunion '02 activities will look back on a memorable year

Much has happened in the world since Cornell's last reunion, and looking back at this memorable year -- as well as getting together with former classmates and seeing and hearing about the groundbreaking changes on Cornell's campus -- will be the focus of alumni returning for Reunion 2002, beginning today.

As usual, a great variety of reunion activities have been planned for the estimated 6,000 visitors during the four-day weekend, including university, college and class tours and gatherings, symposiums and lectures, concerts, picnics, banquets, dancing and sporting events. As Cornell President Hunter Rawlings has said, "Reunion provides a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with former classmates, rekindle special friendships and rediscover the unique spirit of the university."

Among special reunion highlights:

• On Friday, June 7, a distinguished panel will discuss the explosive developments in the Middle East, during the annual Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture. The Olin Lecture, an annual reunion event, will be a forum held at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall on campus. It is free and open to the public and no tickets are required. The Cornell faculty panelists for the forum, titled "The Middle East Crisis: Reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse," will be: Ross Brann, the M.R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies; Peter Katzenstein, the W.S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies in the Department of Government; and Vice Provost Isaac Kramnick, the R.J. Schwartz Professor of Government. The forum's moderator will be President Rawlings.

• Also on Friday, another free and open reunion-panel discussion will center on events following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Cornell faculty panelists -- Samer Alatout, assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies; Jonathan Kirshner, professor of government; Barry S. Strauss, professor of history and classics and director of the Peace Studies Program; and David Wippman, professor of law -- will engage in a roundtable discussion titled "The Aftermath of 9/11," from 1 to 2 p.m. in G08 Uris Hall. The event is sponsored by the Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Peace Studies Program.

• On Saturday, Rawlings will deliver the annual State of the University Address in Bailey Hall, beginning at 10:30 a.m. All registered alumni and their guests are welcome to attend.

• Following Saturday's State of the University Address, alumni, students, faculty and community members are invited to be a part of the "big picture " -- "Big Red Live" -- a surprise reunion event on Schoellkopf Field from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

• Also on Saturday, in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall from 2 to 3:45 p.m., a forum titled "Politics, Economics and Culture: Perspectives on the New American Landscape" will feature Alfred Kahn, the Robert Julius Thorne Professor of Political Economy emeritus and former chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board and adviser to President Jimmy Carter; Zachary Carter '72, a former judge and U.S. attorney in the New York City police case involving Abner Louima; and Anke Wessels, executive director of the Committee on Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell. The moderator is Francille Firebaugh, Cornell vice provost for land grant affairs and special assistant to the president. The event, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Classes of '67 and '02, the Continuous Reunion Club and the Theater of Ideas.

Among other reunion events open to alumni and their guests:

• On Friday in Sage Chapel, from 9 to 10 p.m., the Cornell Chorus -- and its subset, After Eight -- will perform a concert that follows their tour of New England. The music will range from Renaissance to folk songs to Cornell favorites. Admission is $6 per person; tickets are available at some class headquarters and at the door.

• The Cornell Store is hosting its eighth annual Reunion Weekend Book Signing Party on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Noted alumni and faculty authors will be on hand to sign their books.

• On Saturday, from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall, there will be a special screening of the acclaimed film Carnauba: A Son's Memoir. The film is narrated by Samuel C. Johnson '50, chairman of S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., and it retraces his father's 1935 expedition in search of Carnauba wax, while providing a meaningful look at the role of family in shaping lives. Johnson will be available to answer questions after the screening. No tickets are required.

• A University Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance will be held Saturday, 4-4:45 p.m. in Sage Chapel, to honor all deceased Cornell alumni, including those lost during the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. The service will have special music and a meditation by the Rev. Stuart Haskins '52 of Littleton, Colo.

• A Cornell University Police exhibit, "The Heroes Within," a Sept. 11 memorial on the ground floor of Barton Hall (accessed through the west entrance), will be open continuously from 7 a.m. Friday until 10 a.m. Sunday. Photographs, mementos and messages contributed to the Barton Hall exhibit will be forwarded, after the exhibit closes, to specified locations. Visitors also are welcome to bring flowers, which will be donated to area nursing homes following the weekend.