Alumni Quote Box

“I lived in Langdell when it was just for boys. I’m feeling fine with it being a girls dorm. I actually wanted to go visit my old room, but I don’t think we’re going to have time. I was next to the basement and the butt room. The place where you could go smoke cigarettes and play ping pong. That’s what the PG’s did. It was a gathering spot where people could slack-off and procrastinate. I was a PG for swimming and water polo.”–– Alex Hendrick ‘74 “I was a four year senior, four year swimmer, four year water polo [player]. I lived in Knight House for three years and Cilley Hall my prep year. It’s hard, it’s a lot of work. It’s going to make college a lot easier, trust me on that. But the thing I really love most is the people. We had a lot of problems during our years because a lot of people were being thrown out. It was stricter. Our senior year there were 16 weeks in a row with people being thrown out every week. We finally staged a protest in front of a faculty meeting. There was a guy up for smoking marijuana, and we were like ‘if you throw him out, you gotta throw us all out.’ They let him stay, so power to the people. You guys have a lot more power than you realize.”–– Lachlan Falls ‘74 “Honestly, I don’t think a lot has changed. There are small things that changed, though, like the omelettes in the hot food line. Things like that, a lot of periphery things, have changed. But the atmosphere is the same, it’s just like five years ago.“I had hour-long conversations with people that I haven’t spoke to in five years. And I was having amazing conversations with them. I think being able to talk to people you haven’t talked to in five years is awesome.”–– Yeltsin Fernandes ‘09 “I lived in Bancroft. All the various accomplishments of my classmates and the work that they’re doing out in the business world and different communities; it’s really impressive.“There are definitely more trees now on campus now. Also, the Grill, as I knew it, is no longer in its original location. There are a lot of new buildings now, but I guess the gym still looks the same.“I also remember when a bunch of girls came from our dorm to eat in the dining hall and if a boy was sitting at a table alone, we would not have enough room to sit down together, so some of us would sit down with him, and he would get flustered and leave! Now that clearly doesn’t happen anymore.“I had a fabulous time [at the reunion], and I would highly recommend it to you guys when it’s your turn.”–– Mandy Denton ‘74 “I think one of the innovations that has been introduced to the last two or three 50th reunions has been the idea of a panel called a ‘conversation.’ So we take a theme like climate change or like prejudice, or a different kind of social issue and we have three or four classmates who have had a really long intense experience about it talk about it five minutes each. Then we had an open-mic, so that people would ask questions, make comments and add to the general conclusions. That was the most exciting overall.“Another thing about reunions is that you discover people—there were about 800 people—that you have never really come to know while you were a student here and all of a sudden, you discover these wonderful friendships. And so, I would emphasize, please go to reunions. It enriches and completes your Exeter experience.“The third thing is meeting you guys [2014 PEADQUACS] and sharing music with the same musical groups that existed 50 years ago. That has been my dream. I’m the one who got the idea about a year ago, and I had to really work hard, but it was worth it; it was so precious to spend time with you guys.”–– Peter Calkins ‘64