July/August 2009
Features
Alumni Reunion Weekend 2009 Was Largest Ever
By Ethan Rouen ’04J
This year’s Alumni Reunion Weekend welcomed more College graduates back to campus than ever before. More than 1,100 Lions gathered on campus and across Manhattan beginning Wednesday, June 3, for five days of festivities and activities.
Almost 2,000 alumni and their guests, including little Lions, enjoyed Alumni Reunion Weekend's events, such as the Decades Barbecue on South Lawn. PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSOAdding to the revelry, 250 additional alumni and parents attended Dean’s Day on Saturday.
A highlight was Saturday’s Dean’s Breakfast, at which Austin Quigley was feted as he completes his 14-year tenure as Dean of the College, and at which the President’s Cup was presented to Bernard Nussbaum ’58. (Read Nussbaum’s remarks here.)
Attendees and their guests packed the Public Intellectual Lecture series to hear talks by Dr. Mehmet Oz, professor of surgery and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at the Medical Center; R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School and the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics; and James Schamus, associate professor of professional practice at the School of the Arts and CEO of Focus Features.
College alumni also ventured all over the city for behind-the-scene tours of museums, dinner cruises and Broadway shows.
Rain didn’t discourage crowds from gathering on Friday, the first full day of events, and when the weather cleared on Saturday, partiers enjoyed the all-class wine tasting and class dinners, and ended the evening by filling the tent on College Walk, dancing late into the night at the Starlight Reception.
Click here for a gallery of reunion photos, including class pictures.