This past weekend, I enjoyed welcoming over 800 parents, family members, alumnae, and friends to campus for Family and Friends Weekend and Homecoming.
The main event for the weekend is always the opportunity for parents to visit their daughters and to experience Wellesley through their eyes. This weekend is also always full of Wellesley traditions, and people enjoying them.
Every year at this time, our sophomore class plants their class tree—a tradition dating back to the College’s earliest days. This year, we joined the Class of 2018 at Green Beach to plant a lovely magnolia tree. I look forward to seeing the tree in bloom this spring, adding a burst of color to the shores of Lake Waban. The Class of 2018 wasn’t the only one planting trees this 
weekend. Wellesley welcomed back to campus about 30 members of the Class of 1983, who came together for a mini reunion and replanted their class tree, a sugar maple, which had been compromised over the years. These alumnae made the most of their tree re-planting by dressing up and singing songs out of the Wellesley songbook, as Wellesley women did back when the tradition of Tree Day was first established.
Not far from the Class of 2018’s new magnolia tree, a little farther down on the shoreline, we celebrated the newly renovated Butler Boathouse—renovations that were made possible through the generosity of Alice Lehmann Butler ’53 and her husband, John. Wellesley has a strong tradition of rowing on Lake Waban, a tradition that, like so much of Wellesley, spans generations of students. Rowing has been a part of our culture 
since the late 1800s (we were the first college in the U.S. to establish a women’s crew team), and, since 1963, our Boathouse has been home to class and dorm crew, another longstanding Wellesley tradition. It is no wonder that rowing in dorm or class crew is on the list of 50 things to do at Wellesley before you graduate!
It also was a great weekend for the Wellesley Blue, including games and alumnae-athlete events on Saturday, and a Blue Nation Fun Run on Sunday.
It was a pleasure to share the past few days with members of Wellesley’s extended family, and to join them in keeping our Wellesley traditions alive and well.
