Dear classmates,

The trees on the Hill have started to turn to yellow, deep red and brown. Autumn arrived in central Ohio precisely on September 22. There’s a chill to the air and mist rises off the river in the mornings now. It makes me crave conversations with friends on a bench along Middle Path, wearing a favorite Kenyon sweatshirt, surrounded by the warm, dry scent of the fallen leaves. Wherever you are, whatever your weather, I hope this stirs up memories of your own connections to friends at Kenyon.

The new Chalmers Library has quickly become a hub for making this type of connection day and night. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend a visit! Its neighbor Lowell House, home to admissions and financial aid and named for Pulitzer Prize winning poet Robert T.S. Lowell IV ’40, is also now open. Oden Hall, future home to social sciences and named for former president Robert Oden, will open for instruction next year. The 261-space underground parking garage for visitors and employees is already helping to ease congestion in the Village without disrupting the beauty of Gambier we all remember so fondly.

This semester, 12 members of the Class of 2026 were able to enroll as the direct result of donor support for the Kenyon Access Initiative (KAI), a vital scholarship effort to increase access for low-income students. We’re only just getting started and aim to enroll 50 students each year through KAI, in addition to other robust financial aid. This additional diversity in backgrounds and lived experiences will further enrich daily life on campus.

This year students will also soon have access to a dining option in “downtown” Gambier, when Peirce Express opens in a space under the Gambier Deli. (Shout out to all who remember eating in Gund Dining Hall!) This space will also be home some evenings to a student-run bar known as Flats, helping to provide a non-residences nightlife option. Look for more about both of these in an upcoming issue of Kenyon News Digest.

In other news, the Music Department is celebrating its 75th year. Alumni Council is developing an updated version of the Kenyon songbook (Kenyon has a songbook!) which will be viewable online soon and distributed at Reunion Weekend during the all-class sing. If you haven’t saved the date yet for Reunion Weekend, remember that all alumni are welcome to attend May 26-28.

Before we move on to updates from our classmates, I hope you’re now feeling wistful about our own time at Kenyon. I invite you to turn that nostalgia into action with a gift to help make all this possible! 

I personally encourage you to make a gift to the Kenyon Fund directed toward enrolling the next high-achieving group of students through the Kenyon Access Initiative. I gave to it because my father would have loved to attend Kenyon but did not have the means. There’s no question, if this had been available to him it would have changed his path.

As for directing Kenyon Fund gifts, there are also broader scholarships and financial aid efforts, athletics, one of the College’s many green centers and more. Please consider making Kenyon and today’s Kenyon students a philanthropic priority this year by giving online at gift.kenyon.edu.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing the news from the College this fall. I have certainly enjoyed (as always) hearing from those of you who submitted class notes for this letter (see below). Please, if you haven’t updated us, consider submitting a quick update for the next batch of notes in the spring. Even the briefest note is a small connection between us all!

Thank you!
Eileen (Shaver) Lehmann