Someday future graduates of NIU might recall Homecoming as a tradition which used to be popular with colleges and universities, but now is just old history.

With changes in the backgrounds of students attending college, the relationship between a college and its alumni is changing, said Susan Lund, director of Alumni Programming, Development and Alumni.

Elaborate award dinners, speakers and huge musical bands were common during the celebrations held for alumni 40 years ago.

The class sizes of 40 years ago are small compared to the graduating classes of 5,000 students last year. The increasing class sizes over the last 40 years have eliminated the three-day class reunions typical of 40 years ago, Lund said.

“We find it very difficult to do class reunions with 5,000 students,” she said.

Lund said NIU’s growth into a school of 24,000 has brought new traditions.

Keeping in touch has become a simpler process since academic departments started sponsoring tents for returning alumni several years ago.

“People come back and say ‘Sue, it’s great to see you’re still here,'” Lund said. “For them, that is a tradition.”

While NIU still has class reunions, Illinois State University at Normal stopped having almost all class reunions around five years ago, said Barbara Todd, assistant director of alumni services for ISU.

With the exception of its 50th year reunion, ISU does not hold any class reunions, Todd said.

Like NIU, ISU has moved the location of its alumni reunions to a tent area. Academic departments of both schools used to hold open houses in their own offices for alumni.

Also like NIU, class sizes have grown. Todd said 25 years ago ISU students graduated in a class of 500. Instead of associating with members of different majors, alumni now congregate around their particular department.

Not all alumni attend the reunions or Homecoming events, or those who do might find they do not know anybody out of a crowd of 5,000 they recognize, Todd said.

In the end, Homecoming is only one part of a college’s relationship with its students, and not all will identify with NIU in the same way, Lund said.

Lund received her Master of Arts degree from NIU. Lund said she is a nontraditional student.

“If you attended (college) as a nontraditional student, your life won’t center around the same things,” Lund said. “Homecoming, for all our efforts put into it, is only one day out of 365.”