Reunions have always had the potential to provoke revelation as well as nostalgia. In that one regard, Cornell University's Reunion 1996 will be just like any other.

The 5,500 alumni and guests expected to converge on campus June 6 through 9 will reunite with former classmates and professors, revisit favorite haunts and commemorate longstanding institutions and traditions; but they also will encounter a new president, an expanded College of Veterinary Medicine and a host of other changes to Cornell's faces and places.

As at reunions long past, returning alumni can compete in golf and tennis tournaments, an alumni baseball game and a Reunion Row; take guided tours of the Cornell Plantations, Lab of Ornithology and local wineries; and take cruises on Cayuga Lake. And, of course, there will be gastronomic functions galore, from clambakes to Mexican fiestas; one of the best attended of these will be the annual all-alumni luncheon at noon on Friday and Saturday in Barton Hall.

Reunion attendees also can indulge in a smorgasbord of educational forums, symposia and lectures. In one of the weekend's highlights, Beverly Sills, opera star and Lincoln Center board chair, will deliver the annual Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture on Friday, June 7, at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Other featured speakers will include New York State Assemblyman Marty Luster and State Sen. James Seward at the dedication of the Veterinary Medical Center and former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater at a Law School alumni dinner. His address is open only to pre-registered Law School alumni.

But the focus of Reunion festivities will be on the alumni themselves, particularly those from classes ending with a "1" or a "6."

According to Margaret M. Gallo '81, director of reunions and alumni programs, many of the 52 attendees expected from the classes of 1926 and 1931 will have their memories and experiences recorded for posterity in a first-ever Reunion archival program.