News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Contact: Mary Caffrey 609/258-5748
Date: May 26, 1998
PRESS ADVISORY
Reunions, Baccalaureate to Precede Princeton University's 251st Commencement
Princeton, N.J. -- The Class of 1998 and alumni classes that include the first group of women to attend Princeton for four years will take part in Reunions Weekend and graduation activities that start Thursday, May 28, and conclude with Commencement on Tuesday, June 2, 1998.
Alumni classes will converge on campus beginning Thursday for a full slate of academic and social programs, including fireworks on Poe-Pardee Field Saturday evening. The famous P-rade will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 30. The parade passes through the FitzRandolph Gates and winds across campus along Elm Drive before concluding at the Poe-Pardee Fields. The Class of 1973, the first class to enroll at Princeton after the start of coeducation, will lead the parade in celebration of its 25th reunion.
Fireworks, by the Santore Brothers of Garden State Fireworks, will begin at 9:15 p.m. Saturday. Princeton's reunions fireworks display, begun in celebration of the 250th anniversary, will continue through 2000, when all alumni classes will have had fireworks at a major reunion. (Every fifth year is considered a major reunion at Princeton.)
On Sunday, May 31, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Ruth Harkin, parents of graduating senior Amy Harkin, will be the featured speakers at the Baccalaureate, the interfaith worship service in the Princeton University Chapel. The service begins at 2 p.m. Press seating will be available outside the chapel, where the audio portion of the service will be broadcast. Reporters and photographers who wish to cover the event are asked to call Mary Caffrey in the Office of Communications by 2 p.m. Friday, May 29.
Princeton's 251st Commencement will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 2, on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, RAIN OR SHINE. Reporters and photographers who wish to cover the event are asked to contact Mary Caffrey in the Office of Communications by 1 p.m. Monday, June 1, and to pick up their press credentials between 9 and 10:30 a.m. in the Office of Communications, third floor, Stanhope Hall (next to Nassau Hall). Photographers who wish to take a group shot of the honorary degree recipients must come to Nassau Hall by 10 a.m. Names of honorary degree recipients are not announced in advance.
On-campus parking is not provided during Reunions Weekend and Commencement. Extended parking is available in the park-and-shop lots on Chambers and Hulfish streets in Palmer Square, across the street from the University.