Dear classmates,

It’s officially Reunion month on the Hill! I hope to see many in Gambier this May to celebrate our reunion at what will hopefully be a weekend to remember since alumni will be able to reunite on campus after two years of virtual gatherings. Some of us may not look the same as we did in ’67.  We may still be able to recognize each other if our eyesight has held up. The sense of isolation that has accompanied the past two years has been challenging to navigate. Ideally we’ll have a good turnout and enjoy this opportunity for socializing.

Last fall you heard about (and perhaps supported!) the new Kenyon Access Initiative. We are eight months into our five-year partnership with the Schuler Education Foundation to increase access to Kenyon for exceptional students with limited resources. Our extended Kenyon community has enthusiastically responded by making more than 1,113 gifts to support this unique initiative, helping to create new scholarships that will be awarded to students we are enrolling now. As a side note, applications this year hit another record, up 14% over last year.

Hopefully you saw the news from President Sean Decatur this winter that, in response to calls from students as we approach our Bicentennial, he agreed the time had come to look beyond Lords and Ladies. Thanks to all of you who have submitted suggestions or other feedback for the process to consider a new athletics moniker. This letter was finalized before the results were known, but you can visit kenyon.edu/moniker to learn the latest. (Please see Lee Van Voris’s observations below. Comments were accepted by Kenyon through April 11).

This spring the College continued its commitment to integrating environmental stewardship into its curriculum, campus operations and campus culture. Lisa Schott ’80, who since 2010 has served as managing director of the College’s land trust, the Philander Chase Conservancy (PCC), will retire at the end of June after a nearly 40-year career with Kenyon. This news and more was shared in Kenyon’s new quarterly Green Newsletter. If you don’t already receive it, I encourage you to sign up for it at bit.ly/Green-Kenyon.

As summer approaches, Kenyon is preparing to welcome several groups of alumni back to campus. First, more than 100 members of the Class of 2020 and their families have registered to attend their belated Commencement taking place on the Hill May 22. On May 26, the Classes of 1970, 1971 and 1972 will be kicking off Reunion Weekend a day early with special 50th Reunion programming. And then, as you know, many of us will be back on campus May 27-29 for what promises to be the biggest alumni gathering in the College’s history! Registration is still open. If you haven’t do so, please consider attending.

All of the excitement and achievement at Kenyon today can be traced, in part, back to our support. Kenyon relies on our gifts to the Kenyon Fund to support every aspect of students’ experience today, from seminars to scholarships. I hope you will join me in making a stretch gift this year. We know first-hand how a Kenyon education can impact one’s future — not just professionally, but personally. When we support Kenyon’s current and future students, we help make a Kenyon family like ours a possibility for many more.

Hope to see you in May,
George Jones

P.S. Below are ten letters from the class and one from George Luedke who entered in ’63 but didn’t continue at Kenyon. His observations are interesting for those of us who stuck it out in spite of frustrations along the way. Ideally, the adage “All’s well that ends well” would apply to most of those in our class. Scroll down and read on for more.