The Cornell Club of Switzerland was well represented at the 6-9 June 2024 Cornell Reunion extravaganza in Ithaca, with Herb and Jeanine Riband (Cornell A&S ‘84 and CALS ’84) and Juerg and Sonja Hari (Cornell MBA ’94) enjoying the festivities and running into each other on the top of Libe Slope.
Reunion 2024 Highlights
The reunion weekend was well attended by Cornell classes ending in ‘xxx4’ and ‘xxx9’ and was thoroughly enjoyable. Highlights included a “State of the University” address by outgoing Cornell President Martha Pollock, an interview with noted journalist and TV producer/commentator Andrew Ross Sorkin (Cornell A&S ’99), a guided tour of the wonderful Cornell Arboretum, various class-specific events and dinners, lectures on interesting topics (how to make democracies more resilient, synthetic biology innovations, how to understand antisemitism and islamophobia, etc.), late-night parties on the Arts Quad, Big Red band concerts, and of course the mostly-good but ever-changing Ithaca weather.
Herb and Jeanine particularly enjoyed catching up with old friends, multiple visits to the Cornell Dairy Barn to enjoy the delicious Cornell ice cream (sorry Movenpick, but Cornell’s product is better!), a tour of the beautiful Taughannock Falls, and spending three nights in a North Campus dorm. (After the dorm experience, they were more than happy to spend a final comfortable night in the charming Argos Inn close to the downtown Ithaca Commons.)
Juerg and Sonja enjoyed the dorm because the Flora House is located close to the Cornell Chimes. Catching up with classmates, strolls on the campus, a breakfast in Collegetown, the attendance of the Cornell Glee Club and choir concerts, and a nostalgic visit to the Taughannock Falls were also part of their stay. Particularly memorable and very impressive were the physics demonstrations, the “Phabulous Physics Phun Phest”. It is a lot of fun, as long as one does not need to understand the maths and pass an exam, the professor hinted at the beginning. Talking of physics: it seemed that the Cornell Campus Store was a strong magnet for crowds of people!
There is also a newly opened Martin W. Tang Welcome Center overlooking the Bebee Lake. It presents Cornell’s competence in many fields from the beginning to today. Ezra’s ideas when founding the university in 1865 were extremely well presented. His ideas and ideals have great potential worldwide and are still not fully achieved to this day.
We encourage everyone to keep in mind a Cornell Reunion (5 – 8 June 2025) for a future visit. It is well worth the trip, a great way to bring back fond memories and see the impressive progress our alma mater is making on multiple fronts.
Reunion 2024 Gallery
Stunning Sunsets
Cornell is famous for its sunsets:
Ezra’s Early Years
The Martin W. Tang Welcome Center just below Bebee Lake was a new experience for us. We also started to understand the thinking of Ezra Cornell and where he came from
Cornell’s Logo
We also gained more insights into the logo of Cornell University. Its original is now under some renovation and we could only take a picture from the explanatory display.
But we can compare it to the omnipresent modern logo of Cornell University.
Museum of Modern Art
In search of a high point overlooking the campus, we visited the Johnson Museum of Art. Unfortunately, we do not really understand the arts. Some desperate and maybe hungry horse and a carambolage during a bicycle race (maybe coming down from a Swiss mountain pass?) is our interpretation.
Cornell from the Past
Cornell campus as we remember it from 30 years previous.
And particularly impressive the “Phabulous Physics Phun Phest”.