Oh Tech thy halls so beautiful, thy pleasant walks, thy noble trees.

Tech alumni will come home this weekend to take a reminiscent look at their ever-changing campus. But Homecoming 2005 will be a different event from Homecomings past. This weekend is not for the alumni, or even students. This weekend is for family, for those who cannot return to their homes. This weekend, home can come to them.

That charmed me in my college days, are ever dear to me.

This campus is an ever-shifting entity, continuously striving through growth for efficient perfection. Tech has reached the balance between past and present. Though revered, the past is not perfect. Tradition is honored, but not at the expense of the future.

Caruthers Residence Hall escaped its death sentence by housing displaced persons. Though no longer sentineled by the faithful Cold War-era missile, Caruthers is still a point of reference to other things on campus by those who call it home.

Graham Residence Hall, long guarded by the ROTC airplane, now houses men. Harper Residence Hall, though long touted as the private dorm for female upper-classmen, is home to freshmen.

Pedestrians have a newly completed, aviary-styled bridge to guide them across the railroad tracks out of traffic’s way. The biomedical engineering building, one of the greatest promises for the future of the university, shows progress daily.

Those old Tech days, those joyful days, so cherished in my memory.

Not everything on campus has suffered the changes of time. The Lady of the Mist keeps dutiful watch over the Quadrangle, just as she has for the past seven decades. Old buildings closed to make way for new are recycled to become new again. Robinson Hall was once a residence hall, though the Department of Speech is the only entity that now lives there. Once a cafeteria, the current Visual Arts Center now holds starving students of a different kind.

In honor of those monuments that no longer remain, four brick columns stand in memoriam of Old Main, the administration and classroom building that burned in 1936.

Though days of toil in many ways.

All things that man can do pale in comparison to the forces nature uses to undo them. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita detrimental to the state in a plethora of ways, though their storm clouds were edged with a silver lining.

This could very well be Louisiana Tech’s finest hour, not only with the opportunity to serve the alumni locally, but also those abroad, and a continued opportunity to serve those from the flood-devastated areas. This is true Homecoming.

Were happy days and free.