By Jill Goetz
It's hard to imagine a Cornell Reunion that could match last year's for sheer logistics.
When they learned Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui had been granted a visa to visit his alma mater for Reunion '95, Cornell administrators had just two weeks to prepare for an onslaught that would include diplomats, elected officials and 400 journalists from around the world.
"This Reunion ought to be comparatively quiet," said Sergeant Lin Hurd, special projects manager with Cornell University Police, with classic understatement.
Still, at least a few nerves are likely to be jangled and at least a few phone lines clogged during Reunion Weekend '96, which runs through Sundayparticularly those of Margaret M. Gallo '81, who as director of reunions and alumni programs advises the dozens of alumni volunteers who have planned events for their respective classes.
"Cornell Reunion could not be a reality without the tireless efforts of our alumni leaders," Gallo said. "In addition, I have the good fortune of working with several university staff members who know how to coordinate and deliver all the goods and services necessary to host an event such as this. From the housekeeping staff to the folks at PD&C (Planning, Design and Construction), the Office of Alumni Affairs works with an incredible number of behind-the-scenes professionals."
One of them is Mike Goodwin, special events coordinator and head custodian for Barton Hall, who said workers will tap the university's entire inventory of 800 tables and most of its 6,500 chairs for Reunion Weekend, borrowing 100 more tables from Ithaca College.
"Starting on Friday, we'll set up Barton for 1,000 people at the [all-alumni] luncheon," he said. "We'll tear down at 2 and set up for a fancy dinner; when dinner ends at 10, we'll tear down, clean up, and put it back together again for Saturday's lunch.
"You're pretty well burned out, working around the clock," added Goodwin, a 24-year Cornell employee and veteran of 15 Reunions. "We can get off work at 3 in the morning and be back in here by 7 a.m."
Elsewhere on campus, students and staffers working under the watchful eye of carpenter Bill Finnerty will set up 17 tents with stages, electrical cords and power supplies. Finnerty, who came to Cornell nearly 28 years ago, said Reunion Weekend always requires "hard physical work" but added, "I try to put in a lot of humor and have fun with the kids that we work with. We do a lot of laughing."
The fact that Reunion comes just two weeks after commencement wouldn't seem to make Finnerty's or anyone else's job easier. But for Cornell's groundskeepers, it does.
"By the time we get to commencement, much of our work for Reunion is already done," said Clifford Duda, associate director of grounds. "We're preparing and scheduling -- ordering topsoil, seeds, mowers and other equipment -- almost a year in advance. We start the actual grounds work as soon as the frost is out of the ground."
That work includes mowing 310 acres of grass, tending 80 acres of shrubs and trees, planting 6,000 flowers and sprucing up the campus's many dedicated areas that alumni like to visit, from rock gardens to Ho Plaza.
"So our work for alumni weekend is really just touch-up work," he said. "It's good that Reunion and commencement are like one continuous event, the way we look at it."
Barton Hall's Goodwin disagreed. When asked if he ever wished Reunion came later in the summer, he said, "My body tells me that would be a great idea."