The coming of autumn on the Dartmouth campus inevitably brings a crop of new students to Hanover, but it also attracts countless faithful graduates, eager to relive their college days and revel in the College's traditions. This fall will be no exception, as the Office of Alumni Relations has spent the past six months planning activities for alumni and their families, which will kick off this Friday.
The weekend's main event for visitors is the Student and Alumni Party, which starts at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in front of the Alumni Gym.
"This party serves to really kick off all the weekend festivities," Diana Lawrence, director of communications for the Office of Alumni Relations, said.
The celebration is open to alumni, students and faculty and will include food and live entertainment provided by a subset of Dartmouth's Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble.
Immediately following the party, alumni will head over to Crosby Street for the Dartmouth Night Parade. Alumni will march behind the College's sports teams in order of class year, with the oldest in front and the Freshman Sweep bringing up the rear.
"Everyone is really jazzed up and excited gathering at the parade site, especially when the students start to come," Corena Dungey, associate director for events at the Office of Alumni Relations, said.
The parade route begins on the corner of Lebanon and Crosby Street, goes up Lebanon to Main Street, crosses West Wheelock and follows the side of the Green, ending in front of Dartmouth Hall.
After the parade, alumni usually attend the Dartmouth bonfire to watch freshmen make their annual run.
"The alumni love the bonfire because they all remember the bonfires from their student days," Lawrence said.
The bonfire's longstanding tradition attracts alumni, according to Dungey, because it makes many feel connected to the campus.
"I was in a bonfire meeting a couple days ago and I heard one gentleman say that he thinks that the bonfire is one of the first moments freshmen really feel that connection with Dartmouth," Dungey said. "It's a moment that truly binds them to the Dartmouth campus. The bonfire is the same tradition that was on campus when they were here, and it's fun for them to relive it and come back and see that it hasn't changed that much."
The Office of Alumni Relations does not take an official head count of how many people return to campus, but the 1,000 Homecoming guides printed by the Office are always picked up. According to Lawrence, Safety and Security estimates that between the alumni and their families, nearly 10,000 people descend on Hanover for Homecoming weekend.
"A lot of the alumni make it a family affair," she said. "It's a really fun, family-friendly celebration."
While alumni of all ages come to enjoy the festivities, according to Dungey, the older classes usually have a larger turnout.
Many individual classes plan their own mini-reunions to coincide with Homecoming weekend. The Office of Alumni Relations helps the classes to promote their events and also secures venues for their festivities. The Office also hosts a Young Alumni Tailgate before and after the football game on Saturday in order to give younger graduates a space to mingle and reminisce together, Dungey added.
Along with the traditional celebrations, several new events have been added to the Homecoming schedule for Friday. The College will be hosting an admissions workshop in Dartmouth Hall, where officers from the admissions office will share their knowledge about the evolving college search process with alumni and their children.
Government professor Dean Lacy will also lead an interactive discussion about James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds" (2004), which was given to all incoming first-year students as a summer reading assignment, on Friday afternoon.
"Dean Lacy will talk about the work and discuss questions the audience might have about different perspectives on the book," Dungey said.
The first-year book discussion was added to the Homecoming line-up because alumni enjoy feeling linked to current Dartmouth students, she said.
"Collectively when we talk about our planning, we try to think about what experiences the alumni enjoy when on campus, and being able to connect with today's student experience is something that many of them look forward to," Lawrence said.
The Hanover Huddle, hosted on Saturday morning, will feature football coach Buddy Teevens '79, who will talk about the season thus far and take questions from the crowd. This "chat session" has become increasingly popular, according to Dungey.
English professor emeritus Peter Saccio will also be delivering a Faculty Chalk Talk lecture on Hamlet Saturday morning, which Dungey expects to attract a lot of guests.
Planning the alumni events for Homecoming weekend began over six months ago when the Office of Alumni Relations began pulling together its prospective advertising, photography and other necessities.
"In the summer we start sending out our e-mails to see if classes are going to march in the parade," Dungey said. "The intensive hands-on planning gets started in July or August."
Lawrence, who is in her fourth year with the Office of Alumni Relations, said that Homecoming is a weekend that many alumni look forward to for months.
"It really is like coming home because even though some things have changed, there's always room for you," she said.
