Imagine mailing 14,272 valentines. Wouldn’t want to lick all those envelopes.
Well, that's how many the Miami University Alumni Association has sent out to Miami Mergers in advance of Feb. 14 next Tuesday.
This marks the 50th year that the alumni association has celebrated its mergers with a specially themed card for Miamians married to other Miamians.
Or, as the alumni association explains it on every card, “When two hearts beat as one and both attended Miami, it’s a Miami Merger.”
Of Miami’s approximately 236,000 living alumni, 29,676 or 12.57% are mergers. They needn’t have met at Miami, although many do and eventually kiss under Upham Arch, another of Miami’s romantic traditions.
Indeed, Upham Arch is arguably the university’s most famous legend. It goes like this:
“If you kiss your true love under the Upham Hall Arch, you will marry, and the bond will never be broken.” Some insist that the couple must smooch under the arch at midnight, and the lantern must be on, but that’s another story for another day.