Alumni, Family Weekend Draws 600 to Campus

10/09/2012

About 600 people helped celebrate the annual Alumni and Family Fall BBQ the first weekend in October, participating in activities that included tours of ESF buildings and exhibits, receptions, a coffee house, breakfast with President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., and a barbecue on campus.

On Saturday, the day of the barbecue, there were alumni and family members learning how to ride Segways on the Quad sidewalks, playing one-hole golf in Moon Library and lining up outside the bookstore waiting to stock up on ESF apparel and keepsakes.

Alumni and family members gathered in Alumni Lounge, informally known as Nifkin Lounge, in Marshall Hall and in Moon Library for the barbecue lunch. They were treated to a performance by the ESF student a capella group, the Ecotones.

Carol Werner of Hurley, N.Y., came to the event to see her son, James Werner, a senior chemistry major. "I'm excited about spending time with my son for his last year at ESF," Carol Werner said

Laura Crandall, ESF director of Student Involvement & Leadership, was pleased with the turnout and said her favorite part of the weekend was "seeing the families do activities like tie-dying and really getting to see what the students do here all semester.

As the students showed their families around campus, ESF alumni were reuniting with their classmates.

Alumnus Lyle Halbert, LA '81 and '82, said his landscape architecture education taught him good project management skills that he has applied to his career. His advice to current students was: "Explore, turn over every stone, learn everything about the school because you never get this type of experience in life again."

Halbert said, "I had a sense of pride and accomplishment after leaving ESF. I like to return on these occasions to remember what a large impact ESF has had on my life."

The weekend also included a ribbon cutting for the Unsworth Quiet Study Area in Moon Library. The room was furnished with a gift from Robert '84 and Lisa Unsworth. The couple, who now live in Boston, met while he was a student at ESF and she was attending Syracuse University.

— By Brianna Reed ES '13