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When the Hillsdale College alumni took the court at last weekend’s Mock Rock, the crowd went wild. For the first time in homecoming history, an alumni, faculty, and staff team participated in the undergraduate ritual dance battle, rivaling some of the top-ranking student dances.

Mock Rock is one of the many peculiar traditions that bind together the college’s culture. But as seniors graduate and move on, we risk forgetting some of our history because alumni do not have the incentive to return.

Hillsdale students and alumni know that the college was founded in 1844, but few know the stories that have happened on campus since then. Do students know the 1955 Hillsdale Charger football team refused to attend the Tangerine Bowl because they could not bring their black players? Or that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited campus and actually approved Thatcher Ball? 

Instead of scattering alumni events throughout the year, Hillsdale needs to create a week of lectures and activities just before graduation that not only bring alumni together, but also draw undergraduates into the alumni culture.

Princeton University has an excellent blueprint for doing just that.

Just before graduation at the end of each year, Princeton University hosts reunions, a week of lectures, class events, social mixers, and most importantly, the P-Rade, a mile-long procession of alumni through campus, led by the graduating class.

The reunions are about more than seeing old college pals. They are about carrying on the tradition of Princeton to the next generation. That’s why almost every alumnus comes with a spouse, children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren in tow. Since I was 4, I have attended reunions with my grandfather, who graduated from Princeton in 1959. 

As the P-Rade begins, people erupt from buildings and streets like an overdue volcano. They flow in an orange current towards the parade route, twisting through Princeton’s campus.

Graduates pump cardboard cut outs of Princeton’s mascot, the “Tipsy Tiger,” in the air. Parents hoist children onto their shoulders for a better view of the festivities. Alumni drink kegs dry and quickly replace them. No one is quite sober, filled with the joy of drinking vintage wines and seeing equally vintage classmates. 

The P-Rade is much more than a procession of graduates through campus. Before they can walk across the stage at graduation, Princeton seniors must first march past alumni from previous generations. Behind them the classes funnel in, starting with “the old guard,” alumni who have celebrated their 66th reunion or more. My grandfather is 89. He was let into the old guard last year. 

Princeton incentivizes alumni to return and students to participate in reunions in two ways.

First, the university hosts events for numerous affinity groups around campus. Class tents, where alumni from each year can eat and converse, dot the campus. Eating clubs — their version of Greek life — religious organizations, and cultural groups host galas. Every alumnus from every corner of campus has a reason to return, because they know their friends from their niche college interest will be there. 

Hillsdale’s homecoming weekend celebrations offer a taste of what these events could look like. Greek life and athletic teams host functions and award ceremonies, but these only cater to alumni who participated in those activities.

Second, Princeton schedules its graduation for the day after reunion weekend, allowing graduating seniors to be immersed in the Princeton graduate culture before they even join the alumni fold. Seniors celebrate their four years next to both their classmates and the generations that have come before them. 

The timing of Princeton reunions is a masterful way to draw graduating seniors into the college’s alumni traditions and keep them coming back for future reunions, and it’s one thing that Hillsdale could instate to help kick start reunion culture. 

The addition of alumni participating in Mock Rock was a good start, but let’s keep it going with a more consolidated week of activities and lectures that draw alumni back to campus and invite students to participate alongside them.

Ashley Luke is a junior studying English.