Alumni Weekend Draws Crowds Back to BU

The BU Alumni Association considered feedback from thousands of alums in planning more than 150 events for Alumni Weekend, September 19 to 21. Photo by Nailya Maxyutova (COM’14)

Whether you’re the Class of 2014 or the Class of 1964, September “still signals going back to school for many of us,” says Susan Richardson, director of alumni programs and events. “Alumni Weekend gives alums a reason to come back to campus and reconnect with each other and with BU.”

Starting today, about 7,000 alumni will flock to campus for Alumni Weekend, September 19 to 21, where they will take part in more than 150 events. There’s something for everyone this year: receptions and award ceremonies honoring distinguished alums, a traditional sword tapping, cocktails with a view of Boston Harbor, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Frozen with the film’s Academy Award–winning producer, an engineering design challenge, and dozens of celebratory breakfasts, brunches, and lunches. Here’s a sampling of the weekend’s events:

Cocktails with the sharks

On Saturday at 7 p.m., all BU alumni are invited to enjoy cocktails alongside the largest shark and ray touch tank on the East Coast at the Worldwide Welcome: Boston event. This reception at the New England Aquarium, which costs $35, welcomes the Class of 2014 into the alumni community and kicks off similar celebrations in other cities around the United States.

Special talks and panel discussions

President Robert A. Brown and Provost Jean Morrison will host the inaugural Conversation with BU Women, featuring Cynthia Cordes (COM’01), partner at Husch Blackwell; Jeannette Horan (GSM’93), vice president and chief information office of IBM; Christine Hunter (CAS’80, MED’80), chief medical officer of the US Office of Personnel Management and a retired US Navy rear admiral; and Andrea Taylor (COM’68), Microsoft director of North American community affairs. Panelists will share their career challenges and triumphs, and the event will encourage networking and mentoring among alumnae on a broader scale, says Richardson. “We hope our male alumni, faculty, staff, and students will also find this discussion valuable. Our alumnae’s journeys are meaningful for everyone.” This event is on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Photonics Auditorium.

The College of Communication will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of 10-minute TED-style COM Talks, moderated by Jeremy Hobson (COM’04), host of Here & Now on WBUR, BU’s National Public Radio station. Participants include Richard Lehr, a COM professor and author of Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss; Jay Roewe (COM’79), HBO senior vice president of West Coast production; and Denise Albert (COM’96), cocreator of TheMoms.com and cohost of The MOMS on SiriusXM Stars. The COM Talks are on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. at COM.

From media moguls to movie magic, alums will go behind the scenes of the Disney hit Frozen with the film’s Academy Award–winning producer, Peter Del Vecho (CFA’80). Del Vecho will reveal how he and the creative team at Walt Disney Animation Studios transformed Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Snow Queen into a quirky, touching story about two sisters. The talk will be held on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Photonics Center Auditorium and is open to the entire BU community.

Brunches, lunches, and picnics

All weekend, alums will meet, eat, and mingle at their favorite dining spots, starting with a crawl to the campus coffee shops with Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore (SED’87) on Saturday at 9 a.m. ($15). Also on Saturday, alumni and their families are invited to the BU Beach for a box lunch picnic ($10).

Smaller groups will also break bread together at intimate events, including a cocktail reception for black alumni at the Castle today at 7 p.m. Coordinated by the Golden Decade Foundation, the Young Alumni of Color, the Howard Thurman Center, and Umoja, the reception is part of a series of Alumni Weekend events celebrating BU’s legacy of black thought leaders and world changers.

The Golden Terriers—alumni who graduated from BU 50 or more years ago—will gather at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House today at noon to welcome the Class of 1964 into its ranks. At the luncheon, which costs $20, Elmore and current students will share their BU experiences and invite the Goldens to reminisce about the University in the ’60s. The classes of 1969, 1974, 1979, and 1984 will also enjoy dedicated reunions during a breakfast on Saturday from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Yawkey Center, 100 Bay State Road ($10).

On Sunday at 10 a.m., the weekend will close with an Al Fresco Jazz Brunch at the George Sherman Union Terrace Lounge and Patio, overlooking the Charles River. The brunch, $20 for adults and $10 for children, will feature the smooth sounds of the BU Jazz Ensemble.

Events to get your hands dirty

College of Engineering alums who are up for a challenge can compete for Alumni Weekend bragging rights. In true MacGyver fashion, teams of current students, faculty members, and alums selected from the crowd will have just 45 minutes and an assortment of raw materials, such as balloons, Popsicle sticks, rubber bands, straws, and Legos, to build working vehicles. Part of a wider celebration of ENG’s 50th anniversary, the design challenge will be held on Friday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Photonics Center Colloquium Room. The cost is included in the $15 ENG Day Pass and the $35 ENG Gala Package.

Alums seeking a different kind of challenge can join the Charles River Watershed Association in cleaning up the Charles River. Participants will meet at the GSU on Saturday at 9 a.m. and are encouraged to bring gloves. Cleanup may get a little messy.

Celebrations, dedications, and awards

Today, BU celebrates the School of Law’s new Redstone Building with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and unveiling of a plaque honoring media titan and former School of Law faculty member Sumner M. Redstone (Hon.’94), for whom the building is named. School of Law Dean Maureen O’Rourke, BU President Robert A. Brown, Redstone’s daughter, Shari Redstone (LAW’78,’81), and Daniel Koh, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s chief of staff and son of Howard Koh (SPH’95), former US assistant secretary for health, will speak, followed by a reception. The dedication will be held on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the new building’s atrium.

In one of the weekend’s keystone events, three alums will receive University Alumni Awards, BU’s highest honor, at a celebratory luncheon Saturday at the GSU. Recipients are Howard Bauchner (MED’79), a School of Medicine professor and the editor in chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association; Jeanette Horan (GSM’93), vice president and CIO of IBM; and Rick Hoyt, Jr. (SED’93), a legendary Boston Marathon competitor. Matthew Trevithick (CGS’06, CAS’08), who started a rowing club in Kabul, and Mikhail Gurevich (ENG’07, GSM’12), managing partner of the New York–based hedge fund Dominion Capital, will receive BU Young Alumni Awards. The luncheon and awards ceremony is on Saturday, from noon to 2 p.m., at the GSU Metcalf Ballroom, and is $35, $25 for Golden Terriers, Reunion Year Alumni, and all shared interest group alumni.

Several of the University’s schools and colleges will also honor their alums with awards throughout the weekend, including the College of Communication, the School of Theology, the School of Hospitality Administration, the College of General Studies, and the College of Fine Arts. And at a ceremony steeped in BU tradition, members of the Class of 2015 will join the Scarlet Key Society, which recognizes graduating seniors for outstanding achievement in student activities and organizations. In the early days of the 76-year-old society, unsuspecting students received an invitation letter accompanied by a tap on the shoulder from a society member. On Saturday, the 48 new members will be tapped on the shoulder with a sword at a ceremony at the University’s historic Castle from 3 to 5 p.m. They will be formally inducted into the society in May 2015.

To develop this sweeping schedule of events, the BU Alumni Association considered feedback from thousands of alumni surveys to ensure that Alumni Weekend 2014 is tailored to the interests of BU graduates across generations. In addition to the events highlighted above, the lineup will feature the annual BU Arts Crawl, a sustainability festival, a tour of the History of Nursing Archives, a performance of Macbeth under the stars, a morning yoga class, a job hunting tutorial, a pop-up music fest, a historical river cruise, a lightning language lesson—and much more.

Find a complete list of Alumni Weekend events here.

Lara Ehrlich can be reached at lehrlich@bu.edu.