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Four women in evening dress pose with Tim the Beaver dressed in a tux. Lighting is low and a band member can be seen in the background.

Tech Reunions drew 3,324 alumni and guests to campus June 1–4 for MIT’s largest alumni gathering of the year—a multigenerational celebration of Brass Rats, red jackets, techy culture, and the joys of coming together as a community.

Events kicked off on Thursday, when the 50th reunion Class of 1973 led the traditional Commencement procession into Killian Court. Bedecked in their signature red jackets, these alums helped welcome 3,735 new graduates into the folds of the MIT Alumni Association, which now represents nearly 145,000 alumni worldwide.

MITAA president Steve Baker ’84, MArch ’88 served as the chief marshal for the Commencement exercises—MIT’s 118th—which included a keynote address from Mark Rober, a YouTuber, engineer, educator, and founder of CrunchLabs. 

President Sally Kornbluth conferred degrees for the first time and enjoyed her first Tech Reunions weekend—notably sharing her vision for the Institute during a fireside chat for alums on Saturday during a space-themed Technology Day. Overall, the festivities included more than 140 events, among them such favorites as Tech Night at Pops and Toast to Tech. 

Here are some highlights—by the numbers.

Alums in red jackets carry the orange and black '73 banner into Killian Court.

 

Attendance

1,820 alums attended Tech Reunions.
148 alums attended from the 50th reunion Class of 1973.
2 alums attended from the Class of 1948.
 

Two women pose in a party tent with MIT gear, including an MIT T-shirt and a reunions tote bag.

 

Giving

384 million dollars and counting were raised from this year’s reunion classes.
3,200 alumni (approximately) and counting made reunion-related donations.

 

Band members and dancers are shown with a big MIT Alumni banner in the background.

 

Events

125 years were marked by Tech Night at Pops, which featured MIT doctoral candidate Valerie Chen ’22, MEng ’23 as soloist.
3 alums were honored with the MIT Alumni Better World Service Award.
1993 was the class year of the winning team in the Tech Challenge Games.
882 online viewers watched the live Technology Day broadcast.

A man and woman form giant bubbles with plastic wands outside.


 

A man and woman pose in MIT hats and other gear.

 

For more on reunions, explore the 2023 photo galleries, enjoy this video recap and check out our posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Photos: John Capps, Mel Musto, Ken Richardson

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