By Jill Goetz
Reunions have always had the potential to provoke revelation as well as nostalgia. In that one regard, Cornell Reunion 1996 will be just like any other.
The 5,500 alumni and guests expected to converge on campus June 6 through 9 will reunite with former classmates and professors, revisit favorite haunts and commemorate longstanding institutions and traditions; but they also will encounter a new president, an expanded College of Veterinary Medicine and a host of other changes to Cornell's faces and places.
As at reunions long past, returning alumni can compete in golf and tennis tournaments, an alumni baseball game and a Reunion Row; take guided tours of the Cornell Plantations, Lab of Ornithology and local wineries; and take cruises on Cayuga Lake. And, of course, there will be gastronomic functions galore, from clambakes to Mexican fiestas. One of the best attended of these will be the annual all-alumni luncheon at noon on Friday and Saturday in Barton Hall.
Attendees also can indulge in a smorgasbord of educational forums, symposia and lectures at Reunion. In one of the weekend's highlights, Beverly Sills, opera star and Lincoln Center board chair, will deliver the annual Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture on Friday, June 7, at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall (see page 2).
Other featured speakers will include New York State Assemblyman Marty Luster and State Sen. James Seward at the dedication of the Veterinary Medical Center and former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater at a Law School alumni dinner. (His address is open only to preregistered Law School alumni.)
But the focus of Reunion festivities will be on the alumni themselves, particularly those from classes ending with a "1" or a "6."
According to Margaret M. Gallo '81, director of reunions and alumni programs, many of the 52 attendees expected from the classes of 1926 and 1931 will have their memories and experiences recorded for posterity in a first-ever Reunion archival program.
"Preserving the Past, Creating the Future," the brainchild of alumnae Carolyn Neuman '64 and Alice Berglas '66, will pair up alumni from the classes of '26 and '31 in one-on-one interviews with alumni from the class of '66. The interviews will be conducted on Friday and will be audiotaped, transcribed and maintained at Cornell for use in future projects.
Elsewhere on Friday, alumni can join President Hunter Rawlings, Veterinary
College Dean Franklin Loew and some special canines for the dedication of the
Cornell Veterinary Medical Center, which was recently completed following a $90
million construction and renovation project. On Saturday, alumni can join President
Emeri
tus Frank H.T. Rhodes in the Field House for the dedication of the Richard M.
Ramin Room, named for the late alumnus from the class of 1951 who was a longtime
vice president for public affairs at Cornell.
Other events have been scheduled throughout the weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the 25th anniversary of both the Holland International Living Center and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy.
For alumni who wish to return to the classroom, there's Saturday's Reunion Symposium, "Gender Issues in the Workplace," from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall.
Cornell's colleges and celebrated classes will offer their own forums, including "Women's Health Issues in the '90s" (class of 1971) and "Politico Phobia: The Election of 1996 and American Studies" (Arts and Sciences). Cornell Library will offer tours and exhibitions, including "Invention and Enterprise: Ezra Cornell, a 19th-Century Life" and "The Virtual Museum at Cornell," a digital imaging demonstration of the array of artwork available at Cornell's renowned Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and at other museums.
What's more, alumni can attend several summer session classes on topics ranging from art history to the art of publication, money and credit to real estate law, Shakespeare's plays to feminist philosophy, and lost tribes and sunken continents to the geology of Beebe Lake.
Although many scheduled programs will attract alumni from particular class years or colleges, attendance at some events is likely to span the alumni spectrum. At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday in Bailey Hall, Rawlings, inaugurated as Cornell's 10th president nearly a year ago, will deliver his first State of the University Address at a Cornell Reunion. That evening in the same location, Cornelliana Night will feature songs from the Alumnae Chorus and Alumni Glee Club and comments from Rawlings.
"We want people to go away with a renewed sense of what it means to be a Cornellian," Gallo said of organizers' hopes for Reunion 1996.
The same goes for alumni who stay behind. Hard as it is for them to believe, in a few weeks Gallo -- and this writer -- will be celebrating their own 15-year Cornell Reunions.
Complete information about Reunion '96 can be found at the Web site <http://www.cornell.edu/Events/Reunion/>.