A group of Phi Mu sisters from Mercer University’s class of 1968 have been holding reunions for the last few decades and will soon return to where it all started.
Sandy Strasen, who graduated from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was incredibly involved with her pledge class of Phi Mu sisters at Mercer. After graduation, the friends knew that they wanted to stay connected.
“We were and are a very close-knit group,” she said. “We wanted to stay connected after graduation but weren’t quite sure how. When we decided to start reunions, I knew someone had to take the bull by the horns and organize them.”
So, Strasen did just that. At first, the group reunited every 10 years. Then, they held reunions every five years. Now, they meet up every spring by picking a destination in the Southeast for a trip. Savannah; Jekyll Island; Dahlonega; Madison; St. Augustine, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina, have been among some of their most recent reunion sites.
“We go to different places, and we do enjoy sitting and catching up with one another. Recently though, we’ve started planning different activities. For example, in Savannah and St. Augustine, we did boat tours. What’s important about these trips is that we just have fun together,” Strasen said. “We look forward to these trips every year. We plan and save our money all year long, and we spend the week together catching up and doing what we want to do.”
The group primarily includes members of the Phi Mu pledge class of 1964. However, members of the pledge classes of 1963 and 1965 often come too. Most of the sisters still live across the Southeast. Overall, each year, the group sees between 12 and 18 sisters reunite. In recent years, some of the group’s husbands have begun traveling with them as well.
Rita Dennard, a 1967 graduate of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, also spoke about her love for the group’s reunions.
“It’s the camaraderie and sisterhood that we share that I love,” said Dennard. “It does not matter where we are. It only matters that we are together.”
At the end of each year’s trip, the group decides where they’ll meet up next year. Often, they vote to visit a new town together or revisit somewhere they’ve been before.
“Everyone gets a vote, and that next year, we go to the city that receives the most votes,” Strasen said. “At the end of this year’s trip though, it was suggested that for 2026, we go back to Macon to visit Mercer.”
The group wholeheartedly agreed with the suggestion, and after the vote, it was official. Their 2026 reunion would bring them back to Macon. They plan to visit in either March or April.
“The big idea is that we’ll be coming home to Mercer next year. Some of our group haven’t been back on campus since graduation,” Strasen said. “I was there on campus for our class reunion a few years ago, and I know that they’ll be blown away by how much campus has changed.”
She credits the success of the reunions with the close-knit nature of their group.
“These are lifetime friendships that we made together,” she said. “We enjoy each other, and when we get together, it’s like we’re back at Mercer enjoying one another’s company. For that reason, we’ll do these trips as long as we can.”
