I love homecoming weekend because hundreds of alums come back to their alma mater not only with their families but also their stories. There is so much to learn about Saint Vincent’s rich tradition and history. This homecoming was particularly significant because this year we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of coeducation on campus and many of our earliest female students – including our first female graduate – were on campus for the celebration.

There were many highlights from the events that began Thursday night when we inaugurated the breathtakingly beautiful Fred M. Rogers Center. We were blessed to have with us Joanne Rogers, Fred’s widow, and so many members of the Rogers family. It was a historic moment for the College because the work that Max King will direct at this Center will greatly enhance our School of Social Sciences, Communications, and Education – the fastest growing School at Saint Vincent.

There were a number of gatherings where proud alums came together to talk about how much had changed at their alma mater, beginning with the new entrance to the campus that makes our beautiful Basilica and the Rogers Center the first things a visitor sees.

But without doubt the changes in custom and practice at Saint Vincent were far more dramatic than the new buildings and other improvements.

For example, here are a few of the things alums from the Class of 1958 shared with me about life at Saint Vincent fifty years ago:

• There used to be a short, nine-hole golf course on the back of campus in the area behind where St. Benedict and Rooney halls now stand.

• Students in Aurelius used to gather each night in the hallways and pray the rosary.

• A local brewery’s badly-bottled batch of beer was diverted to students who kept it hidden and drank it all year.

• For about the first month of classes freshmen students had to wear a large placard that hung by a string from their neck that had their name and hometown – they even had to wear it at the “mixer” with the Seton Hill girls up the road!

• All students were required to wear jackets to class – no exceptions.

Yes, the reminiscing went on well into the night. The Class of 1958 is a particularly distinguished group because of the preeminence of some of its members including Herb Boyer, who grew up in nearby Derry and took the bus to class each day, and years later founded Genentech (our School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing is named in his honor).

Nearly two dozen members from this great class came together and blended in with their predecessors and successors. We honored the members of the football team that won the Tangerine Bowl (and our 2008 football team showed how much they have improved in their hard fought ball game with Grove City – in one short year Coach Colbert has made our football team competitive after a 45 year hiatus). Some former football players wondered where their old leather helmets were! Others who were here on campus in the early ‘60’s remembered the fire that destroyed so much of the campus in 1963.

As I stood with our students at the Friday night Pep Rally at the big bonfire in front of St. Benedict Hall, I thought of that fire and how Saint Vincent had overcome great adversity throughout its history.

We live in an age with much uncertainty about the economy and the world. It seems like the pace of change in our culture and the political landscape has accelerated.

But the great thing about Saint Vincent is the stability which our Benedictine monks, and the grace of Almighty God, provide. For a college founded before the Civil War and which is no stranger to hardship, there develops over time a confident assurance that Saint Vincent will weather any storms that may come its way.

With the Fred Rogers Center officially inaugurated, the next major project on our campus is slated to begin later this year - the new Sis and Herman Dupré science complex construction and renovation project that will house the Boyer School and be the biggest project ever at Saint Vincent.

In undertaking this ambitious endeavor, we find ourselves following in the footsteps of those who sacrificed and built before us, whether in good times or bad. The Benedictine monks adhere to their founder’s admonition, “work and pray.” We will do the same. The Lord wants Saint Vincent to prosper and thrive, in sunshine and rain, more than we do.