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Alumni Briefly Return to College Life at Inaugural Summer Camp

The summer campers didn’t arrive with beach towels and flip-flops, but they did bring every bit of energy and excitement that you would expect for a summer adventure.

About three dozen luggage-toting participants for the Alumni Summer College arrived Thursday afternoon at the third-floor library of Old East to check in and pick up information packets, campus maps and Carolina blue lanyards as well as room keys — many of the campers were bunking in rooms in the storied campus building.

The historic setting and the topic — “The World Transformed: The Remarkable 20th Century” — attracted Mary Margaret Rand ’60.

“This is a piece of Carolina history,” Rand said, admiring Old East’s wooden walls and the view of the McCorkle Place greenery beyond the windows. “I couldn’t pass up a chance to be part of this.”

This first Alumni Summer College is being sponsored by the GAA and UNC’s Program in the Humanities. Over this long weekend, the camp is offering eight topical seminars presented by UNC professors, a campus tour led by Bland Simpson ’70, Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and creative writing, and other campus activities.

Bill Harrington ’66 jumped at the opportunity to return to a classroom and sit back and hear new, refreshing ideas without having to take notes. “And if you don’t understand, you can just smile and nod,” he said with a laugh.

Melanie and Spencer Hardy, both ’89, drove from their home in Winston-Salem and planned to reacquaint themselves with the campus where they met and fell in love.

AnneAdare Wood ’71 arrived from Aspen, Colo., with an ulterior motive — she is contemplating a move and was drawn to the seminar weekend as a way to get her brain cracking and check out Chapel Hill living arrangements.

“I’m ready to explore the next chapter of my life,” she said. “I needed some brain food, and this fit the bill.”

— Don Evans ’80


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