Around 200 alumni gathered at Binghamton University this weekend to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Tau Alpha Upsilon (TAU), the oldest social fraternity on campus.

TAU was founded in 1961, and exists only at Binghamton University. The weekend-long event began on Friday when TAU brothers gathered at the DoubleTree Hotel and later visited the current TAU house on Court Street. On Saturday, both current and past brothers participated in different sporting events, leading into the main dinner event which included poker and live music.

Geoff Epstein, ‘89, is the co-chair of the TAU Alumni Society. He helped coordinate the weekend’s activities and said that this sort of event is important because it shows how the alumni maintain a connection with the University.

“For us, this bridges all sorts of camaraderie and we try to maintain our connection within our own chapter and give back to the University where we all got our start,” Epstein said. “We know that we’re unique to the University in the fact that really there is no other organization, let alone a fraternity or a sorority, who maintains the level of connection that we do with each other and then gives back to the University in a very demonstrative, positive way.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Binghamton athletics department hosted a brunch to formally dedicate the Events Center Concourse Project and officially thank the alumni brothers of TAU for their contributions to the department.

“This project is going to have a huge impact on our engagement with our community,” said Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger at a press conference during the brunch. “They will walk around, they will have something to look at, to read, to learn the history not only of athletics here but of the entire University.”

Over the last few years, the brothers of TAU have donated over $280,000 to help transform the inside of the Events Center. Their donations helped the athletics department move and remodel its Binghamton University Hall of Fame from the West Gym to the Events Center, construct a timeline documenting the seven decades of the athletic program’s history and increased signage around the arena. TAU has also contributed to the installation of the scoreboard at the Baseball Complex and the scoreboard and press box at the Bearcats Sports Complex.

“With the generosity of all of you, we were able to far surpass our vision for [this project],” said Binghamton Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott. “What this project has done, what you’ve done, is allowed us to connect that 1948 Triple Cities student with who we are today.”

Harold Silverman, ‘10, said that the highlight of the weekend reunion was the bonding among the brothers and the networking that takes place.

“As a group that is only in Binghamton there is a really strong bond between the brothers, no matter where we are from or what we do,” Silverman said. “Every five years when we get these big events together, it’s amazing to reconnect.”

Ryan Mirchin, the president of TAU and a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, helped organize the weekend’s festivities and said that this type of alumni event gives active brothers an opportunity to network with alumni and see how the fraternity has evolved.

“This is great for the active alumni connection because that’s what keeps TAU going,” Mirchin said. “It’s great for the actives to hear what they did in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and how different or how similar things are today.”