Dear Alumni Volunteers:

In my 11th month as your executive director, nothing has so vividly demonstrated to me the difference the Penn State Alumni Association is making than the events of March 26–April 4.

Beginning this sequence was the first-ever reunion of doctoral alumni, on March 26–27, of the University who had received their degrees 50 years and 25 years ago. Partnering with the Graduate School, the Penn State Alumni Association sponsored an evening ceremony that welcomed more than 100 such alumni back and unveiled a new “Wall of Honor” in the lobby of Kern Building. On the wall are listed all alumni who received their doctorates 50 years and more ago—our doctoral “pioneers.” The following evening we fast-forwarded to the future, at the Spring Social and Recognition Dinner sponsored by the Graduate School Alumni Society. At this event, 10 brilliant and very grateful graduate students were each presented a $5,000 Alumni Association Dissertation Award in fields ranging from comparative literature to pathobiology. The $50,000 we award every year to outstanding dissertation students comes from interest earned from a $1 million endowed gift the Alumni Association made to the Graduate School a few years back.

The next big event was “Land-Grant Day” in Harrisburg, March 29. In the capitol, at a news conference and in legislative sessions, the Pennsylvania House and Senate re-affirmed via resolutions Penn State’s status as the Commonwealth’s singular land-grant university; the two houses also bid congratulations upon the University’s upcoming 150th anniversary year. In the evening, the Penn State Alumni Association sponsored a reception at the Harrisburg Hilton, at which more than 350 legislators, staff, alumni, and friends, as well as Penn State trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, and students, celebrated the day’s events.

Two days later, on March 31, your Alumni Association was on Broadway, for “Penn State Live at Lincoln Center.” There, as a major co-sponsor, the Alumni Association brought students in the Penn State Musical Theatre program and the Essence of Joy choir to the stage of Alice Tully Hall. Nearly 1,000 Penn State alumni and friends turned out on a cool, damp evening for an evening of musical delights that will long be remembered.

And on April 4, your Alumni Association was a major co-sponsor, with four other units of the University and the State College Area School District, of the first full-length traditional American Indian powwow in our area. This was a truly national event, with dancers and musicians representing the Cheyenne, Yankton, Sisseton, Lakota, Blackfeet, Dacotah, Iroquois, and Arikara nations, among many others. Our involvement helps to advance the Association’s agenda for diversity and positions us to engage Native American students and alumni as members.

On activity of a different sort, I’m looking forward to traveling in the coming weeks and speaking to the:

• Chicago Chapter, at its wine and cheese party, on Saturday, May 8;
• Northern New Jersey Chapter, at its THON golf outing, “Swinging for the Kids,” on Monday, May 10;
• Philadelphia Chapter, at its fund-raiser for the Adam Taliaferro Foundation, on Thursday, May 20;
• Orange County (Calif.) Chapter, at its Pennsylvania Dutch Dinner night in Anaheim, on Saturday, May 22;
• Knoxville (Tenn.) Chapter, at its annual dinner, on Friday, June 25;
• Lake Erie Chapter, at its annual steak fry, Saturday, August 7.

For the future,

Roger L. Williams ’73, ’75g, ’88g