Different times. Different staffs. Common bonds. The top banner on the 85th anniversary tabloid insert to The BG News provided an accurate summary of reunion events held at BGSU over the Homecoming weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2005.

The shared experiences of working at The BG News created strong bonds between alumni, regardless of when they attended the University. Current News staffers mingled with predecessors from the 1950s through the early 2000s. Recent graduates gave layout tips to current editors. Editors from bygone eras compared notes on being summoned to the University president's offices -- decades apart.

Circle your calendar for Sept. 30-Oct. 1 and plan on returning to campus to join in celebrating The BG News' 85th anniversary. If you haven't been to campus for a while or kept in contact with old college friends, this is your chance.

The newly formed BG News Alumni Society is sponsoring multiple reunion events during Homecoming weekend to honor the campus newspaper and those who have captured a first draft of BGSU history, and student life, since 1920.

More than 100 students, faculty/staff and alumni packed into a room in BGSU's Bowen-Thompson Student Union March 28 to hear Akron Beacon Journal Managing Editor and former BG News Editor Mizell Stewart, '87, address the changing demographics of news consumers. The event was sponsored by the BG News Alumni Society as part of the School of Communication Studies' annual Communication Studies Week.

There was Dallas Brim, BGSU Class of 1955, swapping stories and enjoying the moment. A former BG Newser, he was a long-time BGSU Bookstore employee whose late wife, Delores, was business manager of The News in the 1970s.

There was the husband-and-wife team of Dan and Cindy (Smercina) Bomeli. Dan was a photographer at The News and Cindy a reporter in the mid-1970s. They now live in suburban Cleveland.

Two former BG News staffers, now a husband-wife team for Ohio's largest daily newspaper, will speak to students at the BGSU's Bowen-Thompson Student Union on Wednesday, March 21, in an event sponsored by the BG News Alumni Society.

Cleveland Plain Dealer veterans Michael K. McIntyre and Elizabeth (Kimes) McIntyre will talk about their careers, share job-seeking advice with students, and discuss the pros and cons of newsroom marriages from 3-5 p.m. at the Union's multi-purpose room. The event is open to the public. The McIntyres also will answer student questions and have dinner with BG News editors.