University of Idaho alumni will celebrate 50 years of bearing the silver and gold at the Golden I Reunion Thursday and Friday.
The event will consist of taking class photos, touring the campus and the Silver and Gold award ceremony in the International Ballroom in the Bruce Pitman Center.
Marie Duncan, assistant director of alumni events, said one of the greatest things about the event is comparing the differences in experiences between the Vandals of today, and the Vandals who graduated in 1967 or earlier.
“For instance, the alumni who are coming back for this event weren’t here to experience the Kibbie Dome,” Duncan said. “Women had to wear skirts unless it was, or below freezing back then. Their college experiences, stories and memories are just so widely different than mine, but there is a lot that seems very much the same.”
There are several differences between the Vandals of 1967 compared to current students. However, Duncan said despite the age difference, there are quite a few similarities between them.
“I would say things have stayed very much the same in the dedication to service that University of Idaho students have,” Duncan said. “Some of the service activities on campus started with these alumni as far as food and blood drives go.”
Duncan, who has been working in her position since June 2015, said she is a third-generation Vandal and has attended two Golden I events in the past. She said sharing this experience with alumni is one of her favorite experiences.
“I attended a Golden I event as a student speaker in the mid 2000s, and I attended again as alumni in 2010 when my grandmother was inducted into the Golden I,” Duncan said.
Duncan said the process of contacting alumni can be a difficult. She said it is important to keep the university up to date on relevant contact information for these kinds of occasions.
“We’re really at the mercy of our records, and our data,” Duncan said. “It’s important for people, and their families, to update their contact information so we can have an alumni database. Sometimes I have a phone number, sometimes I have an email address and other times I have nothing to go off of.”
Duncan said students building connections with alumni, talking to them and using that insight to create a plan for life after school plays a key role in finding success outside UI.
“I say that as a third-generation Vandal,” Duncan said. “I was raised by Vandals who were raised by Vandals. Those experiences, and understanding how they went about succeeding in college is great.”
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]