Alumni Memories Sought; Centennial Student Union Plans 50th Celebration Homecoming Day, Oct. 7


The Centennial Student Union invites students and alumni to join its 50th Anniversary Reunion Celebration on Homecoming Day, Saturday, Oct. 7.

Highlighting CSU reunion festivities during Minnesota State University, Mankato Homecoming Day 2017 activities will be an afternoon reception starting at 3:30 p.m. in the CSU Hearth Lounge. Other days activities will be a morning light breakfast, an invitation to participate in the Homecoming Day parade, and an evening “family friendly” event.

Mark Constantine, director of the Centennial Student Union, said activities celebrating the student union’s 50th anniversary will begin at the start of the Fall 2017 semester and continue through Homecoming 2017.

“We are reaching out to all alumni – and particularly our past CSU student employees – to return to the Centennial Student Union on Homecoming Day to help us celebrate,” Constantine said. “We also are inviting all alumni to share photos and memories shaped in the CSU as a part of a Fall ‘Serendipitous Memories’ art show planned in the CSU Art Gallery.”

“We are reaching out to all alumni – and particularly our past CSU student employees – to return to the Centennial Student Union on Homecoming Day to help us celebrate. We also are inviting all alumni to share photos and memories shaped in the CSU as a part of a Fall ‘Serendipitous Memories’ art show planned in the CSU Art Gallery.” – Mark Constantine

Photos and memories can be shared on the CSU 50th Anniversary website, www.csu.mnsu/50thAnniversary. Shared memories will be displayed in a CSU Art Gallery exhibit from August through the Homecoming celebration.

“Maybe the CSU is where you met your life partner, found a lifelong Greek community or discovered a personal passion,” Constantine said. “We want to share your CSU memories.”

The CSU also is creating a 50th anniversary display that will be used in the CSU throughout the 2017-18 academic year as well as with the University’s planned Sesquicentennial traveling display. The CSU display will include a video timeline featuring CSU directors, key staff members and special guests.

2 Replies to “Alumni Memories Sought; Centennial Student Union Plans 50th Celebration Homecoming Day, Oct. 7”

  1. My memories go back a long way to the original staff of CSU. I even recall the two or three rooms we used in Old Main prior to 1967. As new pledges to Phi Delta Theta, a social fraternity still active on campus,, we were required to participate in a campus activity. I chose what what then called CUSA or Council for Student Union Activities. Our adviser and mentor was Sally Rosbrugh, a gregarious soul who encouraged us through many leadership skill development opportunities. Through CUSA and the CSU I met many friends I can still call friends today. We were part and parcel of the tumultuous late 60’s/early 70’s. I was a member and then chaired what was called the Discussion Committee charged with bringing speakers and events to campus. I remember a three week symposium was planned called “What is the State of Man” organized around the dates of the first Earth Day back in 1970-. Senator Mondale came to speak to the community on Earth Day. We even invited President Nixon to come to campus. I still have the rejection telegram from one of his key staff members. I remember other great staff members. Roy Lashway, the original director, was always approachable even when he was chewing on that ubiquitous pipe. Jim Zwickey was the operations director then and Will Steil was the night manager. We also had a full-time concert manager in the likes of Alan Light. And then there was Arnold Gruter, a visiting artist in residence who became an artist for our community. Now, through the leadership skils I freely developed at part of the CSU family, I’ve continued to be active on campus through the Advisory Council of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

  2. My first year at Mankato State involved accommodations on the fifth floor of Searing Trump Tower overlooking Old Main. Room and board was several hundred dollars a quarter and included the cozy room and three meals a day. I was able to walk to Old Main for some classes; and the inter-campus bus shuttled me up the hill for the others. I saw a flyer one day which advertised for help with the inauguration of the new student union. I jumped at the job and was paid to help move in booths, kitchen equipment, and the like. I worked alongside some wonderful students and we all put a bit of ourselves into that building. For so many of us the Union became a meeting place and also a nice place to study.

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