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Reunion giving tops $60 million

Tech Reunions 2011 brought a record number of participants to campus, drawn in part by the sesquicentennial celebrations. Reunion giving hit a new record.
Saturday’s Technology Day began with faculty presentations on MIT’s past and future and ended with the bang of fireworks at the Toast to Tech finale of the MIT’s sesquicentennial celebrations. And the annual midday luncheon, where classes gather to announce their support for MIT, delivered a lasting gift to the Institute. The reunion classes announced their collective donations to MIT — more than $60 million. Giving by the Class of 2011, the newest alumni, set a new participation record of 76 percent.

A record number of attendees — more than 3,777 alumni and guests from 46 states and 23 countries — came to campus June 2-5 for Tech Reunions. They chose among some 149 events from class gatherings to campus tours to Tech Night at the Pops, which featured performances by Tom Scholz ’69 of the Platinum-award winning band Boston and mezzo-soprano Stephanie McGuire ’96.

MIT Alumni Association President Anne Street ’69, SM ’72 announced two honorary association memberships. MIT physics professor Ernie Moniz, the Cecil & Ida Green Distinguished Professor and the director of the MIT Energy Initiative, was honored for his help on Association projects and his popular talks to alumni. Rosanne Goldstein was honored for her six decades as an engaged member of the MIT community. She and her late husband Jim, who earned three MIT degrees in the late 1940s, founded the Goldstein lecture series; their three sons and a grandson also earned MIT degrees.

As Street turned the ceremonial gavel over to incoming Association President Greg Turner ’74, MAR ’77, she noted that the sesquicentennial celebrations provided new opportunities for alumni to gather worldwide. During the celebrations, alumni participated in 158 events from traditional Toasts to IAP in January to a June dedication ceremony and hike at Virginia’s tallest peak, Mount Rogers, named for MIT’s founder. Turner, whose year-long term officially beings July 1, said he would focus on issues of governance and alumni engagement in propagating the MIT’s message.

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