Every year TWU celebrates Homecoming, where alumni return to campus and reminisce about their college days.
This year on April 20-22, TWU will be hosting classes ending in ‘2 and ‘7, most notably the class of 1967, who are celebrating their 50-year reunion. TWU alumna and former faculty member Nancy Boyd has helped plan this year’s homecoming for the class of 1967.
Boyd said: “This reunion will be different because we’re different. We’re grandparents and some of us are great grandparents, some of us have never married and some of us widows… Just people from all walks of life bringing their stories back that we can share.”
TWU graduates celebrating their 50th homecoming, have for a long time, been affectionately nicknamed “Golden Girls,” a nick name Boyd’s mother created when planning Boyd’s aunt’s 50th Homecoming. Boyd’s mother and all of her aunts attended TWU and Boyd is very proud to be celebrating her 50th reunion with her class mates.
This year’s group of Golden Girls graduated from TWU in 1967. This class is composed of all women, as TWU had not yet started admitting male students. These women entered TWU as First-years in 1963, the year President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Their time at TWU was spent devoted to their education, while they kept a close eye on politics and the Vietnam War, many students even served in the Reserves for the U.S. Armed Forces. TWU’s Lasso Choraliers and Serenades were musical groups who toured different nations around the world for weeks or months at a time preforming for American troops. It would be fair to say that students attending TWU in 2017 have had very different experiences than students attending TWU in 1967.
When asked if she still thought of TWU as the university she attended Boyd said: “I see the same opportunity. But from my point of view – my mind still goes to just women. When I was Director of Field Services in 1977, we had to start excepting males to our health sciences. So, in my head, TWU is still a girl’s school. And I’m pleased that men see the value of obtaining their education here. I don’t begrudge them that, but I still see this as the proving ground for future women.”
Boyd is excited for the new twists TWU has made to traditional reunion events. During convocation this year, TWU has decided to let alumnae from the class of 1967 escort graduating seniors into the event. Alumnae will also enjoy touring campus and class rooms to see how the campus has evolved since their time in school.
Boyd said: “I hope people will look for the little old ladies with the white hair and the name tags flowing in the breeze and say hello to us and let us talk to y’all. We are going to sit, not as a group at the Spirit luncheon, but we want to meet the Juniors and the Seniors and the Freshman and the Sophomores, so we’ll be scattered throughout the audience for lunch. The more we learn about [current students], the more we love our school.”
Be First to Comment