Like many of you, I spent about 17 months at home during the pandemic, working remotely, bingeing Netflix movies and socializing primarily with my immediate family. I came back to the Lehigh campus and my office in August, as students once again started moving back into their residence halls and filling the campus with an energy that I had so missed.
It felt good to come back together and continue our beloved Lehigh traditions—which brings me to two very special moments at Lehigh that we capture in this issue of the Bulletin.
One was The Rally, when alumni, students, faculty, staff and university leaders filled the Clayton University Center lawn as the sun set on a warm Saturday evening in late August. Together we celebrated as Lehigh’s first-ever coed class, the Class of 1975, officially adopted the Class of 2025. Because the pandemic forced last year’s Rally to be virtual, the Class of 1974 was there too, to formally adopt the class that had followed them 50 years later, the Class of 2024.
The Rally took on added significance this year because it marked the first time in the long-standing tradition that a woman represented a class at the ceremony. You can read a Q&A with Karen L. Stuckey ’75, who presented the incoming class with its official flag as well as a silver cup her class received 50 years earlier from the Class of 1925.
The most joyous of occasions came in October as the Lehigh community came together again to celebrate the inauguration of Joseph J. Helble ’82 as the university’s 15th president. The ceremony and inauguration festival were part of Founder’s Weekend, a tradition that began in 1879 to commemorate founder Asa Packer. You can learn more about Lehigh’s new president—only the second alumnus in the university’s history to serve in that role—here.
We hope you enjoy this issue, which also brings you stories on alumni, faculty and student research, athletics and campus-wide initiatives. We welcome your comments through email at maa614@lehigh.edu or snail mail at 301 Broadway, 4th Fl, Ste 100, Bethlehem, PA, 18105. Hope to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Mary Ellen Alu, Editor
