Eight Class of 1986 alumnae recently returned to Lehigh to take a trip down what they call “MEmery Lane.” That’s not a typo. They were returning to where they met as freshmen in fall 1982: the third floor of Emery Hall.
Long after graduation, the women from Emery 3 have stayed in touch. Friendships forged over late-night pizza, winning intramurals, and lunch in “Ratbone” (aka Rathbone Hall) yielded relationships lasting four decades. “It was kind of an unusual situation that we all met in our freshman hall and connected [in a way that] people don't usually connect in such a large group,” says Rebecca Shapiro Sendel ’86, an electrical engineering graduate in Denver, Colorado. “We left Lehigh with a really strong connection.”
Her Emery roommate, Julie Luce Clifford ’86, agrees. “Most of us hailed from similar backgrounds. We were young and excited to be at Lehigh, and we shared challenging and crazy times together, both good and bad,” recalls Clifford, a social relations graduate in Nixa, Missouri. “As hallmates, we grew and pursued life to its fullest, and to this day we hold sacred ‘sisterhood’ and wonderful memories that are deeply rooted in our time together on Emery 3.”
In 2008, Sendel began organizing weekend reunions for the women. At their first gathering in a Morristown, New Jersey, hotel, about a dozen shared two days of nonstop reminiscing. Subsequent get-togethers included a trip to a beach house in Charleston, South Carolina, to celebrate their 50th birthdays. Attendees were surprised with “chipwiches” for dessert: ice cream sandwiched between oversized chocolate chip cookies, a mainstay during their Lehigh days. In 2019, the group spent a weekend in Annapolis, Maryland, catching up, touring the Naval Academy, and savoring seafood.
Many, such as Susan Lustig ’86, a marketing graduate in Guilford, Connecticut, had come back to campus before. “I enjoy returning to campus. I have attended several reunion weekends and did a campus tour with my daughter, Melanie Siegel ’27. Now she is a student, so I have attended Family Weekends too. The campus and Bethlehem have certainly changed — drastically!”
This time it was different, looking at campus through the lens of their Emery year. “As we were walking around, we had something to say about every little inch of that campus,” Sendel says.
Clifford had T-shirts specially made for the weekend with the words “Lehigh – 1986 – Emery 3” on the front. The back of the shirts proclaimed “I Heart Emery Sisterhood.”
After a nostalgic lunch in Rathbone Hall, they toured campus with business analytics major Meredith Purcell ’25. The women revisited locations such as the former site of Taylor Stadium, where they spent many fall Saturdays attending football games. Along the way, they learned that the 24-hour study room in “SMart” (their name for E.W. Fairchild-Martindale Library) is now only open during finals. “You’d bring Diet Cokes with you and study as long as you could stay awake,” Sendel says. During a stop at Linderman Library, they recalled going there to “scope out” cute boys.
Visiting Emery itself was the highlight. None had been inside since graduation. “I had forgotten how many stairs we used to walk!” Clifford says. Although they noted changes — no more built-in furniture — they were surprised that the residence hall was very much as they remembered it. The common room, then a gathering place to watch television, seems much quieter now that students can stream shows in their rooms.
Purcell notes they recalled exactly who lived in each room, telling stories about every person. “I thought that was amazing,” says Purcell. “I'm a senior, and I can't even tell you who lived in what room my freshman year, and that was three years ago.”
Sendel remembers camaraderie as they dressed before heading out to the Friday night cocktail parties fraternities hosted on The Hill. “I think we each only owned one or two dresses, but you never wore your own dress,” she says. “We just passed around the dresses, right?”
Standing in the narrow hallway, they could almost hear the music coming out of their old rooms. “We’d be listening to Joe Jackson or The Romantics and dancing before we hit The Hill,” Lustig says, adding that living together before the social media/cell phone era made their bond possible.
“Leaving our doors open and sitting on the carpet in the hall helped foster organic friendships,” she says. “While many of us did not stay super close through all our Lehigh years or after, we had similar values and in general were kind and fun loving and hold fabulous warm memories of that year we ‘grew up’ together.”
