As the holidays neared, alumni, faculty, staff and students gathered around the blue spruce across from the Benham-Pence Student Center to enjoy the annual campus tree lighting ceremony.

Participants were treated to hot cider and hot chocolate as they listened to Wittman Crew, the all-male a cappella group, and newcomer Just Eve, an all-female a capella group.

The event concluded with onlookers seeing the 50-foot tree arrayed in light. A dinner then followed in Hollenbeck Hall’s atrium and Ness Family Auditorium. More than 130 attended