From daylight to well past dusk, crowds of alumni, faculty past and present, children with fantastically painted faces, friends and neighbors turned out on April 25 for Cal State Northridge’s first all-class Grand Reunion.

Nearly 3,500 strong, they gathered on the Oviatt Library lawn to celebrate CSUN’s 50^th Anniversary, to reignite friendships, to re-discover the alma mater that prepared them for their careers and simply to have a grand time together.

Led by President Jolene Koester, the university rolled out a welcome mat that included music for many tastes—jazz, steel drum, banjo and more—along with tents where Greeks and other groups came to mingle, a fun house for the kids, open houses hosted by campus departments, food, fellowship and dancing.

Some alumni came decked out in retro letter sweaters and jackets from the days when CSUN was known as San Fernando Valley State College, or in the red dresses of the Granny Girls spirit squads named for the late CSUN super-booster Dorothea “Granny” Heitz.

But however they dressed and whether they graduated in 1958 or 2008, the operative word for the day was “celebrate!”

What a Day!

• Nearly 3,500 adults, children came during the course of the day and evening. Were you there?
• More than 40 reunion groups were represented…
• A 75^th anniversary time capsule was filled and sealed. See you in 2034!
• CSUN became the first CSU campus to produce a live streaming Web cast of an alumni event…
• More than 400 alumni and friends visited the Web cast, from the U.S., Japan, France, Canada and the Philippines…
• Facebook messages came in from Miami, New York and as far away as Sweden…
• CSUN’s Web team captured Twitter messages from alumni who couldn’t come and from reunion celebrants tweeting direct from the Oviatt Lawn…
• Some families arrived with several generations of CSUN alumni…
• A 50^th Anniversary Grand Reunion “Big Picture” caught the day’s spirit.

Visit the CSU Alumni Website at www.csunalumni.com to share Grand Reunion photos and videos. (Photos by Lee Choo, John DuBois and Dat-Tuyen Nguyen)

— Brenda Roberts

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