Bird In Charge

Here’s a dirty little campus secret: faculty, staff, and administrators don’t always relish meetings. They can run overlong; they often take place in stuffy conference rooms; and, well, these days, everyone’s busy checking March Madness scores and brackets anyway.

Now, the Alumni Relations folks are a little different. They always bring the enthusiasm—in fact, it’s kind of written into their job descriptions. Anyway, even they sometimes can use a little jolt. So, ever in search of a good story, a certain magazine editor decided to become the Buzzard and crash their planning meeting for Reunion 2012.

In addition to a big head, the Buzzard brought along some big ideas. The Buzzard insisted that the Alumni Relations staff put registration online—as well as a list of those who have already registered. (“We’ve actually been doing this for years,” reports Steve Crawford, director of Alumni Relations, “but we wanted him to feel useful.”)

The Buzzard also demanded a host of alumni classes, including talks given by filmmaker Bestor Cram ’67, exercise physiologist Kitty Consolo ’78, and Denison Associate Professor of Biology Rebecca Homan. (“Alumni College Classes aren’t new to reunion either,” says Crawford, “but the Buzzard really thought he was on to something, and we didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise.”)

And the Buzzard’s final contribution? An early bird special, of course. (Says Crawford: “Um, yeah. What can I say? He’s the Buzzard.”)

So, take note that the early bird deadline is April 30. You don’t want to displease the Buzzard, believe us.