Dear Fellow Members of the Class of 1963:

We know you look forward to this letter to learn about what’s going on with our classmates. We also want to share some Kenyon news. 

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 to Kenyon by low-income students, many the first in their family to go to college. Kenyon is only just getting started and the goal is to enroll 50 students each year through KAI, in addition to other robust scholarships and financial support. This additional diversity in backgrounds and lived experiences will further enrich a Kenyon education.

The new Chalmers Library in the West Quad has quickly become a hub for student connections, day and night. 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 below the West Quad is already helping to ease congestion in the Village without disrupting the beauty of Gambier and the College. 

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. This space will also be home some evenings to a student-run bar known as Flats, helping to provide more non-residence nightlife. Look for more about these and other developments in upcoming issues 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 which will be viewable online soon and distributed at Reunion Weekend during the all-class sing. If you haven’t saved the date for our Reunion Weekend, please do! We hope to see you at our 60th Reunion May 26-28. It may be a challenge to come to Gambier but it is always worth the effort to have the opportunity to see one another, celebrate together and see the physical changes to Kenyon that have enhanced the campus. 

As you all know, I value our years at Kenyon and my later years visiting and volunteering for Kenyon. I just returned from a cruise in Greece and met a graduate from 2008 who was a fellow passenger. I gave him my 43022 Kenyon purple hat and urged him to get involved in Kenyon.  I invite you to turn our memories of Kenyon into action through a gift to help continue to maintain and improve Kenyon though a gift to the Kenyon Fund. You can direct your gift toward enrolling the next high-achieving group of students through the Kenyon Access Initiative, or broader scholarships and financial aid efforts, or athletics, or one of the College’s many environmental centers, and more. Please make our alma mater and today’s Kenyon students a philanthropic priority this year by giving online at gift.kenyon.edu.

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of the news from the Kenyon. I have certainly enjoyed (as always) hearing from those of you who submitted class notes for this letter (see below). I encourage those who haven’t updated us with recent news to consider submitting an update for the next batch of notes in the spring.

I am really looking forward to seeing you next May!

All my best,
Neal Mayer