’69 Blazes Another New Trail: Class Colloquia

Forget the ‘Coat and Tie’ rule, or the change from numerical grades to a pass/fail system!  This will be as impactful as the splendid color/graphic 50th reunion Classbook.  The Class of ’69 offers its newest innovation: Class Colloquia.

Class Colloquia are scheduled videoconferences led by classmates, members of the Yale Faculty, or speakers from the broader Yale community  The subject will address a topic of widespread contemporary interest, in a format adjusted to suit the topic, time, and speaker expertise.

“Getting together face to face for meetings of Yalies is simply not possible these days,” says reunion co-chair Bill Newman.  As a member of the Reunion Committees for both the 50th reunion AND the 55th, Newman continues, “Normally, we like to hold ‘mini-reunions’ in between the quinquennial affairs.  But COVID-19 makes meeting face-to-face risky, especially for our age group.”

Blazing A Trail.   The meeting in April with Ken Davis was a first.  “Given the sudden lockdowns in March and Ken’s ongoing experience and willingness to brief us, we jumped at the chance to stage an online meeting addressing the pandemic,” said Art Segal, Class Secretary.  “The response was overwhelmingly positive, too.  Classmates loved not only the factual information from Ken, but also the added dynamic interaction with friends they hadn’t seen for a long time.  It was  clear that this is an idea that would create real value for classmates, and we want to extend and expand it.”

Class Council Approval.  At the meeting of the Class Council held on May 27, 2020, the Council encouraged the class leadership team to reach out to people with expertise and credibility to address topics of broad interest to classmates, especially from members of the Class, the Yale faculty, or others from the broader Yale community.  Not only should the topic be one of interest, but hopefully, the information / discussion should be something that is not available elsewhere.

To that end, Messrs. Segal and Seiver are reaching out to candidates who include John Yarmuth (confirmed for June 17th), Reed Hundt, Michael Medved and multiple faculty members who can be named if/when they agree to present to our Class Colloquia series.

Follow our event scheduling and registration in the Class Newsletter.