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		Welcome Home, Reuniting Former Staff Members By Tere Valenzuela, Student Services Coordinator, UCLA School of Nursing, & former Resident Director at the UCLA, Office of Residential Life Last Spring my department sponsored a reunion for former staff members of the UCLA Dykstra Hall staff. Over the last ten years, the members of the staff have at times reunited in different people’s homes and/or events, in hopes of catching up and keeping in touch. Through the connection of working on a staff team, we kept in touch after the job was done, and continued to share our lives with each other. Mainly one former staff member, who called everyone and organized the reunions, made this effort possible. Having never hosted any of these reunions, I decided we could have a reunion back on our campus, back in our residence hall and back in our dining hall. This was the perfect opportunity for the department to invite staff members to visit the campus again, see the changes that have happened since they left, and reunite with the school. It began with me writing a proposal to my department, asking for sponsorship for the event. The department agreed to host our reunion at a brunch in the brand new dining hall, which most, if not all staff members, had not seen since the changes. I contacted Dan, who was the one always in touch with others. He began calling people and getting contact information for me to formally invite them. Other staff members then began contacting me with other information on individuals and it continued from there. We planned the reunion two months after my initial proposal got approved. May 15 was appointed the reunion date, and I informed everyone involved of the details. The former staff members had to pay for parking on-campus, or walk from other parking venues to campus, but the brunch was free. I asked current staff members in our former hall to volunteer to give us a tour of the new facilities now surrounding Dykstra Hall, something I was sure would be impressive to those who had not been back since graduation. Our director was also invited to say a few words of welcome on behalf of the department. The day of the reunion, we had 12 people confirmed, including a couple of spouses, some fiancés and a few children. I stood in front of our old building and waited for all to arrive. Once all were there, we went into the dining hall. My friends and former colleagues could not believe their eyes! Even those who had recently visited the campus were astonished at the changes. Their biggest surprise came when we headed to the dining hall, to a private dining room, and asked them to help themselves to whatever was being offered for brunch that day. They were amazed at the amount of food, the variety and the quality of food that was now presented to students. “We didn’t have this when we were here,” one of them said. “I bet you they don’t serve surprise casserole anymore” another ventured, referring to the leftover dish of the week back in our days. Our dining halls now offer a wide variety of dishes, salads, entrees and deserts, something extraordinaire in comparison to our college days. As the meal progressed, we did personal updates on our lives, answered questions and shared in the excitement of events to come. Some members were engaged, some in great jobs, some with spouses or awaiting the arrival of a new baby. My former colleague put it perfectly when asked about the reunion: “I truly enjoyed myself at the reunion, more than I expected to. I especially enjoyed sharing the old pictures with the current staff members. I think it's important for people to stay connected to the past. It helps you to see how things used to be and how far things have come.” With pictures and old stories, we were reminded of days passed and experiences lived, and enjoyed each other’s company once again. After the meal was over, several current Dykstra Hall staff members joined us and offered a tour of the current facilities. Dykstra Hall has now been converted into the Dykstra/De Neve Complex. It now houses a brand-new residence hall where our old dining hall and basketball courts used to be. We toured the new complex and enjoyed the telling of new stories, new comparisons to rules and regulations and new students, definitely different from how we used to be. As we walked down the hall, we knocked on rooms in the new building, introduced ourselves to students in those rooms and asked them for a peek into their living quarters, just to compare. In Dykstra Hall we visited almost every floor, and a few of the rooms where we stayed as staff members. Some of us remembered seeing the flames from the L.A. uprising in the early 90’s. Some remembered fire drills out in the back patio. Some remembered how they loved their room and the view it offered and yet others were shocked when seeing all that has changed when looking out from their old rooms. A lot has definitely changed, but our connections seemed to be untouched. As we neared the end of the tour, we visited the new residential staff office in the new building. There the current staff members found and showed us old pictures and plaques they kept, some with our names on it, from back in our days. We decided our former resident director should keep them, as they were mostly from programs started by him during his years as director. After enjoying some more time with current staff members, our reunion ended, but not without the promise of doing this again, finding more people to participate, and keeping in touch. We began an e-mail group listing and continuously keep in touch with messages, updates and ideas for our next reunion. It was definitely a time to cherish, as another staff member put it: “I had a fabulous time at the reunion. It made me realize how special it was to be on the Dykstra Hall staff, how in a university with 30,000 people we created our own community.” Since the reunion, my department has begun work on what it will hopefully call the Office of Residential Life-Alumni Association. This involves working with our school’s alumni association to create an organization of former staff members. We hope this will enable us to continue to reunite former staffs, to have them come back to campus, make connections and continue to be in touch with the school and the department. About the Author Tere Valenzuela is a native of Mexico City and has lived in California for over 20 years. She has worked in residential life for over eight years at Chico State and UCLA, where she earned her Bachelors Degree in English and Spanish Literature. She also worked for Pacific Oaks College, where she earned her Master's Degree in Human Development. She enjoys writing and traveling and hopes to do more of both in the future. You may reach her at mtvh02@hotmail.com