Celebrating Our Golden Bears at Homecoming 2023
Homecoming festivities began on Friday afternoon, October 20th with the Golden Bears’ Luncheon, a reception for Bridgewater State University alumni celebrating their 51st reunion and beyond. The Dunn Conference Suite was full of excited chatter as old friends reconnected for the first time in years, reminiscing about days gone by and being astonished at how much the school has changed over the years; the delivery robots roaming campus were a particular fascination.
Just like our students today, many of the alumni at the event came from working-class backgrounds and want to ensure that others have access to the same opportunities they enjoyed. Many from the classes of ’63 and ’68 spoke in amazement about how in their day, a semester of college cost as little as $300 — a far cry from what students around the country are paying today.
Some were astonished at the mountains of supplies that today’s students need to bring with them to campus; one woman spoke about how she began her freshman year with nothing more than a typewriter, a portable radio, and a suitcase of clothes. They remain passionate about their alma mater in no small part because of BSU’s continued commitment to making a college education accessible to all.
In President Fred Clark’s, ’83 address, he went into great detail about how Bridgewater State has grown in the last few years in both obvious ways like current and upcoming renovation projects, and more subtle ones, such as the university’s ever-expanding scholarship program. The president of the Bridgewater Alumni Association, Carrie Kulick-Clark, ’85, G’98, then took the microphone to induct a new group of alumni into the coveted Golden Bear Society.
As the event came to a close and the Alumni rushed off to their individual class reunions, they did so confident there would be Bears for years to come.