NEWS

Reunited and it feels so Fired Up!

A recap of the 2025 Alumni Takeover Weekend

A large group of people pose for a photo on a football field in front of a jumbo scoreboard. — Participants of the 2025 Alumni Takeover Weekend pose for a group shot on the Kelly/Shorts Stadium field.

From July 18-20, over 150 alumni returned to campus for the 2025 Alumni Takeover Weekend. The biennial event, led by a committee of alumni and planned in coordination with the CMU Alumni Relations team, gave grads a chance to spend a few nights in residence halls while attending fun events, exploring campus and visiting their favorite spots in Mount Pleasant.

“Alumni Takeover Weekend is all about connection and tradition,” said Hannah Martin, assistant director of alumni engagement. “It’s a chance for alumni to relive their favorite CMU memories, make new ones, and celebrate the maroon and gold spirit that lasts a lifetime.”

Notable events included:

Parking lot party outside of Kelly/Shorts stadium
Alumni takeover of the Wayside
Haunted campus tour
University Recreation Alumni Celebration
Mt. Pleasant bar crawl

A group of four people wearing Central Michigan University shirts, sit on a large, inflatable Central Michigan University chair. — The jumbo inflatable CMU chair was a popular spot for group pictures at the Parking Lot Party during Alumni Takeover Weekend.

This was alumna Heather Hall’s first time attending Alumni Takeover Weekend. The 1997 graduate is a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, which planned its annual reunion to take place during Alumni Takeover Weekend.

“It was amazing!” Hall said. “I love this campus. My time at Central was a life-changing experience and I made lifelong friendships.”

More than twenty-five of Hall’s sorority sisters—spanning multiple generations—returned to campus for the occasion.

“This is always home,” said Alpha Chi Omega sister, Jayne Bannister, ’82. “No matter the combination of sisters from different years that gather, we all easily bond right away.”

A group of women standing and sitting while posing for a picture on a porch of a sorority house. — Alumni members of Alpha Chi Omega pose on the porch of their former sorority house.

For Martin, the weekend also led to a reunion over twenty years in the making. While growing up near Lansing, MI, Martin’s neighbor was alumna Barb Olszewski, ’00. The pair spent many Fridays together at dinners and game nights with their parents, who were close friends. Later, when Olszewski married her husband Paul in 2001, Martin was the flower girl in their wedding.

At this year’s Alumni Takeover Weekend, Martin and Olszewski met for the first time since that day.

“It was such a full-circle moment—proof that CMU has a special way of bringing people together,” Martin said. “I feel so grateful that our shared passion for maroon and gold gave us this chance to reconnect and create new memories on top of the old ones!”

Click the YouTube link below to watch a short video featuring highlights from 2025 Alumni Takeover Weekend. FIRE UP FOREVER!