By
Ayse Guner
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Homecoming commences today
Thousands of alumni are arriving today to celebrate the festivities scheduled all over the campus for the 83rd Homecoming at the University of Arizona.
Homecoming will reunite UA alumni from as early as 1926, some of whom will see their friends, faculty and students for the first time after years of separation.
"This is an opportunity for the alumni coming from all parts of the country, and even from foreign countries, to reconnect to the university," said Sandra Ruhl, senior associate director of the Alumni Association. "A lot of them met their spouses here and they'll remember how they enjoyed each other's company."
Every year, the Homecoming celebration begins with Bear Down Bash in the Bear Down Gymnasium. But this year, because of an upcoming demolition of the Memorial Student Union, the event will be held in the Student Union under a new name, the "Tear Down Bash."
The Student Union offers the alumni a chance to recollect some of their memories of the UA, Ruhl said.
"They can learn what the new union will look like and appreciate all the new things happening," she added.
About 600 people are expected to attend the dinner at the Tear Down Bash. It starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Memorial Student Union's Arizona Ballroom and there will be a Mexican buffet along with the student band, Pride of Arizona.
The classes of 1960 and 1975 will be honored at the Tear Down Bash. Last year, there were two separate class reunion events, but because of the numerous festivals scheduled on Friday, they have been incorporated in the bash, Ruhl said.
Members of the Student Union Activities Board are also attending the bash tonight and were invited to see the plans of the new union, Ruhl added.
SUAB members worked with the original designers of the Student Union and involved in the construction phase of it, said Billy Joe Varney, the SUAB adviser between 1958 and 1984. SUAB was formed in 1951 with a group of students who formed various programs.
One of the programs that the SUAB provided was to reach out to global business sectors and unite them with UA students through campus exhibits, Varney said.
"The board was one of the great things for me to a have close relationship with the students," he said. "I was like an older brother for them and became a father and then grandfather for them."
Varney said he helped with the design of Gallagher Theatre and the Cafe Sonora restaurant.
"I enjoyed immensely when everyone was gone, you have big functions going on in the union," Varney recalled.
"I hated seeing them tearing it down," he added.
The bash will be followed with a bonfire pep rally west of Old Main.
Since 1914, Homecoming has been a tradition at the UA to reunite the alumni with the campus. However, in 1918, 1942, 1943 and 1944, because of World Wars I and II, Homecoming celebrations were canceled.
The UA has one of the oldest Homecoming traditions in the nation, Ruhl said.
Some of the alumni, who visit campus after a long time away, told Ruhl that "they re-live their youth again," she said. Some others find their old friends after years of a lost contact, she added.
Once, Ruhl said, a couple who graduated from the UA found another couple that they were roommates with and had lost contact with for about 35 years.
"When they met at the class reunion they found out that they lived only 15 minutes apart from each other in California," she added.
The Homecoming festivities will continue until Sunday.
