Date: Sep 09, 2010

Hofstra University Celebrates 75 Years of Pride and Purpose

Diamond Weekend Celebration Includes Fireworks, Jimmy Fallon, A Live @ 75 Music Fest, and Charm City Cakes

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – Hofstra University will launch the “75 Years of Pride and Purpose” celebration with “Diamond Weekend” beginning on Thursday, September 23, 2010 through Sunday, September 26, 2010. Some of the events that weekend include a Happy Birthday Hofstra Celebration with a custom made cake that replicates Joan and Donald E Axinn Library along with the original Unispan by Charm City Cakes, a Live At 75 Fall Festival including music acts from each decade and a headliner performance by Atlantic Records Trey Songz, a Grucci Fireworks Spectacular and An Evening with Jimmy Fallon.

“We all took great pains to celebrate the success of our alumni, the academic disciplines and scholarship we’re known for, the eras we’ve lived through, and the traditions we hold dear,” said Vice President of University Relations and Chair of 75th Anniversary Committee Melissa Connolly. “Over the course of the year, we’ll celebrate what is best about Hofstra University, in ways that will be fun, engaging, interesting and challenging. I think we’re all most proud of the diversity and richness of the calendar and the many different and innovative ways we’ll look at 75 years of great history,”

The anniversary celebration will not end after Diamond Weekend. A year-long series of events have been planned to mark the 75th celebration. There are a number of symposiums, film festivals, and exhibits planned including a Kapow! Film Series which will include a discussion following each film, a Cabaret Symposium, the 1935 Film Festival, the What Fools! Symposium as part of the Hofstra Shakespeare Festival. 

The university also will unveil several unique projects commemorating its history that will be on exhibit all year: from an Oral History Project, in which a class of 11 students collected and recorded the stories Hofstra’s history through the eyes of those who lived it that will be displayed on the 75th Anniversary website to an illustrated timeline that will stretch across the Unispan.

Throughout the year there will also be an academic conference or symposium representing each school within the university. For example the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will present their one-day symposium The Future of the Liberal Arts in the 21st Century on September 29, 2010.  The School of Communication will present their conference, Communication, Technology and Democracy: Promises, Prophecies and Projections, 1935-2011 on March 23, 2010. 

Many of the 75th Anniversary events are open to the public, and there is a specific group of events and programs called “Good Neighbors” which were created to honor and celebrate the university’s relationship with the surrounding communities. Some of the these programs include Free Hearing Screenings on October 6, 2010 through the Saltzman Community Services Center, an Intimations for Saxophone performance presented by the Department of Drama and Dance on various dates in October, Hofstra Law School and the Community: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow on February 25, 2010 and Community Services Day presented by the Saltzman Community Center on March 26, 2010.

Our student population is also taking an active interest in celebration the 75th Anniversary by not only participating in many of the events and programs planned but also creating some themselves. Among these programs is a Class Unity 75th Anniversary Mosaics Dedication Ceremony with students from the Hofstra classes of 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 each creating individualized and personalized mosaic squares that can be compiled and designed into a lasting artistic memorial. They will also produce a Dancing Through the Decades event, a Fashion Throughout the Years event, as well as a Fall and Spring Dance Concert.

For more information on Hofstra's 75th Anniversary and for a calendar of events please visit www.hofstra.edu/75 .

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 150 undergraduate and more than 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business; engineering; communication; education, health and human services;  and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. The University also provides excellent facilities with state-of-the-art technology, extensive library resources and internship programs that match students' interests and abilities with appropriate companies and organizations.  The Hofstra community is driven, dynamic and energetic, helping students find and focus their strengths to prepare them for a successful future.