Welcome Home, Alumni

As a proud alumna of two universities, I eagerly await the arrival of my alumni publications. I quickly flip to the back pages to discover any news of my classmates and professors, and I feel a special sense of pride when my mentors or fellow students are mentioned. I eagerly read, too, of changes to the campus environments—often marveling in the promise of new facilities and programs while nostalgically pining for the campuses of my memories. What I miss, however, in these university-wide publications is detailed news about the academic departments that helped shape my intellectual life. For this reason I’m especially proud of the Reavis Newsletter; it speaks to the particular experiences of graduates and friends of the Department of English with reminders of classrooms and corridors where so much of adult identity was forged. While you may expect to hear of changes in personnel or of new courses being offered, the essentials are just as you remember them—people sharing the same love for the English language and literary imagination that so inspired you.

For several decades, The Reavis Newsletter has helped to revitalize your memories of NIU English courses, teachers, and friendships (“the people and the places, and how the weather was,” as Hemingway said it). Last year we published only an on-line version of the Newsletter, but we found that many of you missed the pleasure of leafing through the printed version. This year we are melding print and electronic traditions and publishing two versions of the Newsletter—this on-line version and a print version which you should soon be receiving in the mail. Whichever format you prefer, we hope we can make your return to the stories and faces enjoyable. Welcome back home, again, to Reavis!

Department of English
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
(815) 753-0611
englishalum@niu.edu