Dorothy Fern Provines graduated in 1942, and every year since, she has come back to Eastern for Homecoming Weekend.

This year marked Provines’ 64th time she has attended Homecoming events. Jim Schnorf, vice president of the Alumni Association, said that Provines has set a record for the most consecutive years an alumni has attended Homecoming.

“I like the atmosphere,” Provines said. “I usually see a few people I went to school with. It’s just a day out on the campus.”

Provines received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business education.

This year’s Homecoming events included Tent City, a place where students, faculty and alumni could reunite and reflect on their Eastern experiences.

Each tent had different activities and free food. The College of Arts and Humanities had its traditional beans-in-a-barrel, cornbread and apple cider over the fire.

Lumpkin Hall’s tent offered entertainment with the Miscellaneous Three-Man Band. All members are Eastern alumni from Newman. Steve Allen, Joel Hoel and Jackie Joines performed songs such as “Blue Moon” and Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American.”

Joines, development officer for Lumpkin Hall, was not originally a band member but said she happily accepted the invitation.

“Everybody has a good time with these guys because they play different types of music,” Joines said.

Among the alumni at the Lumpkin tent was Doreen Nelms, who graduated in 1958 and came back to get her master’s in 1975. She worked in the College of Business and Applied Sciences’ office for 18 years until she retired two years ago.

Nelms said she has very strong ties to Eastern because her husband attended the university prior to getting his doctorate in Colorado; her daughter, Kelley, worked at WEIU-TV for two years before teaching at Columbia College in Chicago; and her other daughter, Renee, received her master’s degree at Eastern in business administration.

“I have a strong feeling for Eastern,” Nelms said. “It’s like my second home. I couldn’t say enough good things about this university.”

Richard Hummel, a sociology professor, was in the College of Sciences tent. He plans to retire at the end of this semester, after 32 years of teaching.

“I’ve been very happy working here. The university has been very good to me,” Hummel said. “I’ve been a contented, well-treated person.”

He hasn’t worked anywhere else, and said he has no regrets.

Hummel’s former colleague, Robert Whittenbarger, taught sociology for 25 years until his retirement in 2000 and was the chair of the sociology department for 19 years.

Whittenbarger said working at Eastern was wonderful.

“The people are good, interesting and cooperative,” he said.

He still lives in Charleston with his wife Luz, an Eastern graduate who taught part-time at Eastern in the foreign language department.

This was the first year the Graduate School had a tent, said Andrea Winter, president of the graduate student advisory council. She said she wants to promote graduate education.

“We’re excited to see the alums. There have been a lot of people here, and we are planning to do this every year from now on,” Winter said.

Winter will graduate in the summer of 2002 with her master’s degree in business administration.

Tents also were set up by College of Education and Professional Studies, the Center for Academic Support and Achievement, the Alumni Association and Black Alumni Reunion.