The theme for Homecoming 2025, “Under the Bluejay Sky,” described not only a week of plentiful sunshine but also the wide expanse of activities for the whole Bluejay family.
Homecoming Week kicked off on Sept. 29 with games, treats and contests for students, and then blended into Homecoming & Reunion Weekend, which featured alumni reunions and a bonfire, pep rally, tailgating and block party leading up to big matchups for the football, volleyball, and men’s and women’s soccer teams. The arts were especially well-represented over the weekend, with theatre performances, a Homecoming Concert, an exhibition by faculty from the art department, and a concert by Australian guitar virtuoso Joe Robinson.
Homecoming & Reunion Weekend got underway on Oct. 2 with the Founders Recognition Dinner, where the Founders Medal and Alumni Merit awards were presented to four alumni who have made outstanding contributions to the University and the broader community.
Homecoming 2025 was a historic one too, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 3 to celebrate the official opening of the new Health Sciences Building, the first new building on campus in nearly 20 years.
That evening, there were reunions for alumni from various academic programs, as well as the Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner. At the 50-Year Club Reunion Dinner honoring the Class of 1975, President Troy D. VanAken took the class down Memory Lane, reminding them that theirs was one of the few classes to have had two presidents, Donald Kleckner and then Ivan Frick. In 1975, tickets to see mega-performers like Elton John or the Eagles cost about $8, he added, and it was also the year that Jaws opened in theaters.
The next morning, spectators gathered along Prospect Avenue to watch the Homecoming Parade wind along the streets surrounding the campus. Among the 22 groups participating were the cheerleading and poms teams, Black Student Union, Elmhurst University Dance Company, Sigma Kappa sorority, and Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Lambda Beta fraternities. The Student Nurses Association won for best entry by a student organization.
Dave Burda ’82 and Gale Hulslander had the best seats for parade viewing, perching their camp chairs directly across the street from the Gates of Knowledge on Prospect. Dave and Jeanne Burda ’82, who met at Elmhurst as first-years; and Gale and Jacque Huslander ’77, ’82, have been going to Homecoming together for the past 11 years.
It has given Dave Burda the chance not only to see how his alma mater has grown over the years, but also to reflect on his own Elmhurst experience.
“You can see all the progress, and I think Elmhurst is headed in a great direction,” he said. “I also can really appreciate what being here as a student gave me. When I look back on the major events in my life, whether it was who I married, or what I studied, or my career, I can trace it all back to Elmhurst.”