Enduring Traditions Despite a Pandemic

Johnson museum on the hill

As part of my role as Vice President of Programming for the Cornell Club of Greater Buffalo, myself and other intrepid alumni volunteers organize and lead innumerable events throughout the year. We plan events to attract the diversity of alumni that is a hallmark of Cornell: panel discussions with Cornell faculty or alumni, social and cultural engagements at alumni-owned businesses, family-focused events, engaging with students from the area, volunteer work days, and our monthly book club. We center each of these events around one or more aspects of our Club mission: strengthening our ties to the University, enhancing relationships with students and alumni, facilitating life-long learning, and serving the university, alumni, students, and the Buffalo community.

When COVID-19 upended all of our lives in March, we canceled many of these events. Our board desperately wanted to facilitate events for alumni but were leery of the all-too-popular Zoom or Virtual events, which were circulating widely, but seemed to lack the personal connection we’d come to love at our events. We knew we needed to find a way to hold events that would engage Cornellians to each other and the University, but struggled with how.

There was another element to our desire to hold an event – our annual meeting to elect new board officers must be held prior to our Club’s year-end in June. Normally, this event includes a cocktail hour, formal dinner, and faculty speaker from Cornell. It’s a hallmark event that often sees alumni and parents who may be less involved with the Club come out and meet other members in our dynamic alumni community. This year, we had to make some virtual modifications, but wanted to still create the connection between Cornellians.

Through help from the Alumni Office, and specifically Mindy Hillenbrand, we reached out to the team at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, and Jessica Levin Martinez, the Richard J. Schwartz Director agreed to speak to our group. I’ll freely admit that I had an ulterior motive, as I love returning to Ithaca with my fiancé and wandering the halls of the Johnson Museum, seeing the new installations and heading up to the top floor for the panoramic view of Cayuga Lake.

In an effort to make the event feel more like our traditional annual meeting, we solicited the help of local alumnus John Whitney ’79, a musician and singer-songwriter who periodically leads our gatherings in the alma mater, fight song, and other traditional Cornell songs. John graciously agreed to lead us in a virtual singing of the alma mater at the close of our annual meeting.

So with the help of the Alumni Office, and after a lot of planning and testing sessions, we were able to hold our annual meeting this past May over Zoom. We had all the traditional punches – budget update, events and photos from the previous year, and we even used the ‘poll’ feature to vote in our new board slate. Ms. Martinez fascinated our alumni body with an engaging overview of the Johnson Museum, its collection, its academic projects, and how they are re-imagining the museum experience for a post-Coronavirus world. She even provided us with a peek at some of the Museum’s collections relevant to understanding the current pandemic and historical representations of disease and illness. And, of course, John Whitney ’79 ended the night by taking us ‘far above’ with his vocal and guitar rendition of our alma mater.

The event brought together Cornellians from all over the region, and even allowed for those alumni who were a bit further away – including Florida and Ohio – to join in the celebration. A very special thank you to Jessica Levin Martinez and Carol Anne Barsody from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, to John Whitney ’79, and to Mindy Hillenbrand from the Alumni Office, for making this event possible. The Cornell Club of Greater Buffalo is one of the oldest Cornell clubs in the world dating back to 1880. We’ve survived depressions on world wars and we certainly weren’t going to let the pandemic stop us from convening and carrying-on such an enduring tradition.

written by Catherine March `14, President for the Cornell Club of Greater Buffalo