Alumni Celebrate the Wesleyan Experience at Reunion 2025

Festivities kicked off on Thursday with tours, open houses, and class-specific events that extended through the weekend. Kora Shin ’10, MALS ’18, a college counselor from Oakland, Calif., was especially looking forward to socializing because they had missed out on their 10th reunion due to the pandemic. “My favorite part of Wesleyan was always the people,” Shin said. “I'm really looking forward to just reconnecting with the alumni community [and] connecting with current students.”  

Meeting people from diverse backgrounds is part of what made Wesleyan particularly meaningful to Shin. “Wesleyan does an incredible job of taking a microcosm of the world and putting it here in Middletown,” they said. “It opened my eyes to the world and so that has essentially become the foundation of who I am.”  

Wesleyan’s lasting imprint on alums was the focus of a gathering of the Class of 1975 in the Smith Reading Room in Olin Library on Saturday morning. The 50-year reunion goers came together to share personal stories with the theme of “How Wesleyan Experiences Made a Difference in our Lives.”  

Andrew Barnes ’75 focused his remembrance on the incredible mentoring and teaching he experienced over the years. “[It’s] about what do you want to do? and how can I help you do it? And I look back at the men and women who taught me here and they made that happen for me,” he said. 

Doug DeNatale ’75 shared that he initially wasn’t sure about Wesleyan but a warm welcome from fellow students won him over. Influenced by the “rich musical landscape” on campus, he pursued diverse interests over the years—getting advanced degrees in folklore and working for museums and arts foundations before becoming director of the arts management program at Boston University. “I owe this in no small part to the incredible liberal arts education I received at Wesleyan,” DeNatale said. “It made me open to all possibilities.”  

Timely Talks 

In addition to ample opportunities to remember old times, alums had their choice of WESeminars, or presentations by faculty or alums on a range of topics.  

One seminar focused on a timely issue, “College Leadership in Turbulent Times: A Conversation with President Michael Roth ’78 and Beverly Daniel Tatum ’75, Hon. ’15, P ’04.” In front of a packed audience in Crowell Concert Hall, Roth and Tatum—author and president emerita of Spelman College—talked about the complexities of leading universities in today’s higher education landscape.   

"There's always something to worry about—whether it's financial aid or enrollment or deferred maintenance—but you have to focus on the reasons for joy," said Tatum. 

Reunion alumni also joined graduating seniors and their families for the Annual Parade of Classes. Each participating class—from the Class of 1961 through to the Class of 2025—gathered in front of Usdan University Center to line up with their old classmates and march to the sounds of a live band from Huss Courtyard, down College Row to Memorial Chapel. 

Later that afternoon, Ian Bassin ’98, Hon. ’25 delivered a provocative WESeminar,“The Crisis of Democracy: How our Democracy is Endangered and How We Can Ensure It Endures,” in the Frank Center for Public Affairs. The co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy gave an overview of the modern history of democracy, explaining that there have been a series of waves, or periods when democracy advanced and receded.  

Bassin presented six scenarios to help predict the future of U.S. democracy, and asked the audience to vote for where they thought the country was headed. In order to “push the needle” in a more democratic direction, Bassin suggested several strategies, including standing up to authoritarianism and ensuring free and fair elections. He particularly stressed building broad coalitions across differences: “This actually asks us to partner with people with whom we, whatever our beliefs, have fundamental disagreements that are going to be real and deep,” he said. “We still have to do it.” He continued these themes in his Commencement speech on Sunday. 

Memory Lane 

Midday Saturday, alums across classes filed into Memorial Chapel for the Wesleyan Alumni Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association. Eight alumni were honored with awards for their service, career accomplishments, and creativity, including Amy Bloom ’75, Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing, Emerita, who received the James L. McConaughy Jr. Memorial Award and delivered the keynote address. 

Bloom called studying and teaching at Wesleyan an opportunity: “It's a joyride for some of us, it’s a slog for some of us, it's an exploration, and reckoning, and adjustment, and surprise, and sometimes a disappointment. It is all of those things. It is the chance to discover, to choose, to leave some things and stay with others.” 

Grace Lachona Edmonds ’15, shared a favorite memory from her first year, when a snowstorm caused a campuswide blackout. During the three days students had no power or hot water, they banded together to facilitate rides for food and used trays from Usdan to slide down Foss Hill. “It was a really special time,” she recalled, “and I think part of the reason why there's such a strong 2015 presence here.” 

Chris Tugman ’15, whose favorite memory of his time at Wes was winning the NESCAC Basketball Championship, agreed about the value of the community. “The alumni community's been hugely impactful for me,” said Tugman. “They've been helpful in educating me about careers, introducing me to folks across industries, helping me learn, and connect with other like-minded people,” he said.  

A Podcast and a Party 

A lighter WESeminar featured a recording of the How We Made Your Mother Live podcast based on the popular sitcom created by Wes alums. HIMYM co-creator Craig Thomas ’97, podcast producer Alek Lev ’97, and Josh Radnor (the “I” in How I Met Your Mother) joined special guest, the co-creator of HIMYM Carter Bays ’97, to explore the making of the groundbreaking sitcom, which ran for 208 episodes on CBS from 2005 to 2014.  

In the late afternoon on Saturday, the University hosted a ribbon cutting for the new Fries Arts Building (FAB), which will officially open for classes in Fall 2025. Named in honor of Mike Fries ’85, a longtime supporter of Wesleyan, the FAB will house new performance, teaching, practice, and studio facilities in the recently completed building on Hamlin Street. Designed to combine formal and informal areas, the innovative space will encourage students to collaborate and the community to gather to experience the arts that are so central to life at Wesleyan. 

To cap off the weekend of programming, alumni, graduating seniors, and members of their families gathered on Andrus Field for the annual all-campus tent party. This year’s performers were both The Future Heavies and The Usual Lebowskis. The group was led by drummer Andrew Chatfield MALS '19, followed by a performance by a DJ set by Mario Torres.  

Jeff Harder and Mike Mavredakis contributed to this story.