University Communications

AUP Celebrates First-Ever Founding Week

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This spring, AUP turns 60. As part of our ongoing anniversary celebrations, we’re marking this milestone with Founding Week, a seven-day series of community-wide events both on and off campus, running March 21–27. As an AUP friend and community member, you’re invited to join our worldwide celebrations in honor of our incredible global family.  

The charter of the American College of Paris was signed by our founder, Dr. Lloyd A. DeLamater, on March 27, 1962, thereby realizing DeLamater’s vision of an American international institution in the heart of the City of Light. Since then, our community has achieved 60 years of studying by the Seine, 60 years of late-night café discussions, 60 years of study trips across the world, 60 years of lifelong friendships forged in the AMEX Café, and 60 years of priceless memories that continue to inspire global explorers today. 

People are at the heart of how we learn at AUP. That’s why we decided to make the theme of our 60th anniversary celebrations “What Unites Us?” It’s a question that community members have been answering both in and beyond the classroom for as long as we’ve existed as an institution. At a time when world events are divisive and unpredictable, we are focusing on what brings people together. With that in mind, AUP’s President, Celeste M. Schenck, shared the following video message with our community. 

Here’s how you can take part in our Founding Week celebrations: 

  • Students, faculty and staff can enjoy our on-campus Spirit Day this Tuesday, March 22, by wearing AUP blue and red and stopping by our Founding Week booth in the lobby of the Combes Student Life Center, where we’ll be hosting a photo booth and campus-wide scavenger hunt, giving you the chance to win AUP gear. 

  • Alumni can register for our worldwide alumni-hosted events and celebrate together with peers and friends. Gatherings are taking place in Paris, Madrid, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tbilisi, Montreal and more. Or you can take part on social media, where we’ll be sharing memories and stories from our shared lives in Paris and coming together, even at a distance, to celebrate global explorers everywhere. 

  • Parents can join our online coffee hour with members of AUP’s Founding Classes on Tuesday, March 22, to discover AUP’s past and present in a fascinating conversation with some of the University’s first graduates. 

  • Finally, all AUP community members from across the last six decades can contribute their memories to our Community Timeline, helping build the AUP story from our shared experience as global explorers coming together in Paris. To add your contribution, visit aup.edu/webform/aup-memory-timeline.