Reunion Season, 2019

If it's late May, early June at Yale, it's reunion season in New Haven. Flocks of alumni return to campus, sometimes to check on the state of Yale, sometimes to relive what occurred decades ago. Often to pretend to be 21 again.

In 2019, it was the year of reunions for the Nines and Fours, classes from 1954 (and before!) to 2014. Classmates flooded New Haven in two successive weekends and took over residential colleges, where Yale Alumni Association (yes, what many still refer to as "AYA") officials helped arranged non-stop activity, which now includes seminars, TED talks, and open houses at cultural houses. Old Whiffenpoofs reunite to croon to cheerful audiences at Woolsey. Old Yale Daily News editors ponder the state of journalism. Bright College Years (with waving white handkerchiefs) is sung throughout the weekend in tents and in dining halls.

During reunions and after graduation, the campus is often polished, clean, and well-decorated with flower beds and blue-and-white alumni signage.  While traditional reunion spot Commons is under reconstruction, alumni have new buildings to check out--including the two new residential colleges Franklin and Pauli Murray up Science Hill and the new home for the School of Management.

For just a few hours on a spring weekend (where weather in New Haven finally cooperated this year), alumni forget it's 2019 and feel like 21 again.