While seniors rehearsed for commencement last week, the class of 1954 reunited on campus to reminisce about old times. Eating lunch Saturday at the Stein, five alumni sat together and recalled their time at Brandeis and the 50 years since. A biology major, Sidney Mael is now a veterinarian. According to Mael, he was the first in this profession to graduate from Brandeis. "I'm the original," he said, smiling at this accomplishment.

He is also proud to have belonged to the Bunsen Burners, a group of biology majors who competed in intramural softball and football games.

"We won every year," Mael said, explaining the humor behind the team's name.

Now a Newton resident, Mael said he is also grateful for enrolling in an art appreciation course. Before then, he had never heard of Pablo Picasso.

Smiling about one of her favorite memories here, Jeanette Winston Goodman recounted her role in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera-a theatrical piece about Germany between the two world wars.

The performance was directed by the profound musical talent Leonard Bernstein, who came to Brandeis in 1951 as a visiting professor.

"I took [Bernstein's] Beethoven class too," Goodman, who was a music and theater major, said. "He was terrific."

But she said nothing compares to her marrying her college sweetheart, Issac Goodman, or "Ike." They now reside in California.

Ike played on Brandeis' first football team in 1954 as a guard and wingback, obtaining enough of an athletic scholarship to attend here.

"They were a very competitive group of players," he said. "That first year we had a successful record."

As if the game had just ended, Ike recalled the score against Harvard, 20-13. He also remembered taking his first plan ride to Maine, where the team played against the Maine Maritime Academy and Hofstra University.

An American Civilizations major, he said he was the first Brandeis graduate to attend Stanford Law School. He now practices law and conducts real-estate business.

Before Sydney Rose Abend, the chair of the Reunion Committee spoke, Ike jokingly said, "Watch out, she is our leader."

Smiling, Abend said, "Quiet, or else they will find me."

Her major was originally math, but when the University raised the tuition her junior year, they did not raise her scholarship and she was forced to leave. But after she was married and had four children, she graduated from Brandeis in 1969 with a major in politics.

"I forgot all of the formulas," she said, explaining why she switched majors.

Now living in nearby Wayland, Abend owns and manages some commercial buildings, in addition to other realestate ventures.

Sitting across from Abend was Dorothy Saval Levy, known as Dottie to her friends.

When Levy graduated from Brandeis, she was on track to earn a Ph.D. in sociology.

But instead, she became engaged and thought the quickest route to making a living was to go into teaching.

"Every school that I applied to for a graduate degree in teaching accepted me," she said. "I thought that said something about Brandeis because we were a new university. I was accepted by Harvard, Tufts and Boston University."

When her husband was accepted to Boston University on the G.I. Bill after World War II, which granted stipends covering tuition, she decided to go there for her degree. After that, she said, she had many happy days as a teacher. She now lives in Rhode Island.

All of the women stay in touch. As Ike said, "All of these ladies have discovered the wonders of e-mail.