In 1995, at my 20th college reunion, I was nominated to be our Class of ‘75 Class President. I recall that I agreed to take on the role for the five year term from some combination of pressure from the outgoing president and the University development office. That’s not such a leverage point to be sure, but it seemed to me that the run-up to the 25th reunion might make it a more interesting moment to be class president since it would be a meaningful reunion milestone that most classmates would respond to and that it might establish my class network firmly in a large (2,800-person) Ivy League college class of presumably influential classmates. I’m not sure to what end that was intended to serve, but that was the whole point….you never know, right? One of my problems is that I graduated from undergraduate in 1975 and from business school in 1976, so, back-to-back years. My affinity was with business school graduates, but my dominant friendships were with my undergraduate brethren.
With hindsight, while I did get to know a few more classmates during that five years, I don’t think it was as impactful a term as I thought it might be. What seemed like a major silver reunion moment has long since seemed less meaningful as I approach our 50th (golden?) reunion this year. I just now got a rash of 7-8 emails from my Class of ‘75, so many that I thought the alumni system had gotten the digital hiccups or something. When I opened them up, I saw that, indeed, they were separate and distinct emails to me and my classmates making us aware that there were opportunities for taking on class officerships (each email for a different one) as the prior five year terms leading up to the 50th comes to an end in a few months. I cannot for the life of me think of what would compel someone to want to take on those roles at this stage in life.
I have come to realize over the years that different people have very different cycles of interest when it comes to things like alumni involvement. Some are rah-rah at the start, some, like me, gain interest early and fade, and, I suppose, others peak later when they are faced with a more open retirement agenda. But what might interest a mid-70’s person to want to shake the alumni class tree at such a late stage? Of those 2,800 classmates, I’m guessing 2,000 are still alive. The average age at college graduation is typically around 22 years old. A 50th reunion would occur when alumni are approximately 72 years old (I will be 71). To estimate survival rates, we need to consider mortality rates for educated individuals in their early 70s. College graduates tend to have higher life expectancy than the general population due to socioeconomic factors, access to healthcare, and lifestyle differences. Based on actuarial data and considering these factors, for recent graduating classes (whose 50th reunions would be in the 2020s-2030s), approximately 75-80% of alumni would likely survive to their 50th reunion. The percentage is typically higher for women than men and this rate has been increasing over time due to improving healthcare and life expectancy, but for a typical American college class graduating today, we could expect roughly 75-80% of the class to survive to their 50th reunion, Sure enough, of my friend base of about 16 people, I realize that 4 are no longer with us. One died soon after graduation, one died about 10 years ago, and the other two died in the past five years. By the 60th reunion in 2035, the actuarial tables suggest that 45-50% survival is the norm. That means 4-5 more of us will likely not be available for the 60th reunion. Pretty harsh reality. Don’t think I’ll bring that up during the festivities. That becomes one of those, look to the right, look to the left, those people won’t be here next time exercises.
So, I’m curious, will people step up to fill those 7-8 class officer spots? I’m pretty sure they’ll get a president and that that person will strong arm a pal into the veep spot, but who wants to be something like Reunion Chair or Annual Fund Chair for the class heading into the 55th reunion in 2030? I think of that date as when I will be 76, my kids will be 48-35, my daughter will be approaching her 25th Cornell reunion, my oldest granddaughter will be getting ready for college, and mostly, we will be one year into our first post-Trump presidential term, so who knows what the world is going to look like. All scary thoughts. As they say, getting older is not for sissies.
By the way, those four people who won’t be at the 50th reunion are all men. The women are living up to their demographic profile and staying alive (thank you, John Travolta). I think I may be biasing that sample since most of my college friends are men who are now connected to women who may or may not have been in college with us…like Kim. I also think that since 80-90% of our current class officer roster is female, we can probably expect that those emails will get a different reception from the female half of the class rather than the guys (we are generally lazier than the women anyway). I think we may well be seeing a global demographic trend that will have more and more positions of responsibility and authority held by women. Men will always want any positions that involve excess power or opportunities for financial gain (we are hard-wired to that end), but they are less and less likely to want positions with managerial obligation or administrative burden. I know no one like stereotypes, but I am relatively convinced that the laziness of men and the efficiency of women is pretty universally understood and agreed with. I will expect that women will lead our class forward from this point onward and that they will be leading a cohort of increasingly female composition. I wish I were wrong, but I suspect that I am not.
I recently volunteered to set up a dinner for one of the nights for our gang at reunion this year. Having had a home for 26 years in Ithaca, I am considered to be the most Ithaca-tuned member of our group, even though its been three years since I’ve had that house. Where I would normally throw a Barbecue for the gang, I felt I should arrange something to substitute for that. I got the local Ithaca Beer Company arranged with the help of cousin Nancy. Then, yesterday, I reached out to them and booked the evening, selected the menu, put down the deposit and emailed all that to the gang. I sent it to 20 people, of which 7 have responded. That means I have gotten a 70% response rate, which is pretty good for this age, awareness and attention-span group. One has asked to bring along another classmate friend (AOK), another has asked to bring along his Cornell child (AOK) and one has requested a special dietary order having to do with the avoidance of nightshades for auto-immune condition reasons (I had joked that I don’t do special orders for gluten and vegan needs…but deadly nightshades seems more serious).
We will all arrive on a Friday and gather at the Beer Company that evening for the big meet and greet. Most will then want to go off to the Arts Quad for the famous reunion beer tents (seems a bit redundant, but it ain’t really about the beer). Everyone will have a different agenda for the day on Saturday, but we will all likely try and do a bit of coordination around lunchtime for a soggy Cornell Dining box lunch. Some will want to run, hike, play golf, attend a lecture or the President’s convocation (Who wants to hear from or be an Ivy League president these days?!?) or just walk around campus and throw a frisbee at a dog with a bandana. We will then gather for the more formal Saturday dinner and give and listen to a few speeches in remembrance of those not with us and times past. By Sunday morning everyone will be focused on where they need to go next, and that will end the Big 5-0 for us all.