It’s a celebration of love: love found at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and love for IUP.
IUP will end its sesquicentennial year on June 6 with a Crimson Couple Vow Renewal Ceremony in the IUP Oak Grove. The event, which begins at 2:00 p.m., will include 130 “Crimson Couples” (couples who met at IUP) who are celebrating between three and 66 years of marriage and one local Crimson Couple who will begin their marriage.
McKenzie Lum-Chan, a 2024 computer science major and mathematics minor graduate originally from eastern Pennsylvania, and Scott Yackuboskey, a 2023 regional planning graduate from Indiana County, will be married at the event.
“IUP is our alma mater and where we met, so getting married at IUP and at this event really means something special to us,” Lum-Chan said. “We were planning to get married, but we weren’t really deep into planning our wedding, so when this opportunity came up, we thought it was a great way to get married,” she said. “Our immediate families also will be here to celebrate with us.”
A total of 13,474 alumni identify themselves as part of an IUP Crimson Couple—6,737 couples. For the vow renewal ceremony, 42 couples have 50 or more years of marriage, and 19 couples are married 15 or fewer years. Crimson Couples are coming for the event from as far away as the state of Washington.
The couple celebrating the longest marriage of the Crimson Couples in attendance is Harry and Mary Lou Anderson Carnahan, both 1960 graduates who are originally from Indiana and now make their home in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The couple met as freshmen in 1956 and dated for four years during college. Harry Carnahan was a member of the IUP basketball team and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity; Mary Lou Carnahan was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority. Following graduation, both Carnahans had long-time careers as teachers in the Indiana school district.
The Crimson Couple vow renewal is the second recognition of the Carnahans’ long-time marriage; they were featured in 2010 on the Food Network Challenge’s Incredible Anniversary Cakes show, which featured four cake designers from around the country competing to craft an anniversary cake that personalized the couple’s 50-year marriage.
The Lum-Chan and Yackuboskey wedding will take place first, followed by the vow renewal event. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Pastor Rev. Tedd Cogar, director of IUP’s Military and Veterans Resource Center, will be the officiant for the event.
In addition to the couples registered to attend, more than 100 family members and friends of the couples will be at the event, which will include a welcome from IUP Alumni Board of Directors President Mary Morgan, of Indiana. IUP President Michael Driscoll will make remarks and lead a congratulatory toast for the couples.
“The cochairs of IUP’s sesquicentennial, Assistant Vice President for University Advancement Jennifer Dunsmore and Executive Director of Marketing Molly Russell, have done an outstanding job organizing a year of events to appropriately recognize the university’s past, present, and future,” President Driscoll said. “I thank them, and all members of the IUP Sesquicentennial Committee, for their creativity and hard work.
“The entire university community—which includes our home community, alumni, and friends—has come together to mark this milestone in the university’s history. It’s been a time for reflection on a century and a half of excellence, growth, and transformation, and it’s also been a great deal of fun,” he said.
“To end our 150th anniversary year by bringing together members of the IUP family who found their partners here and who wanted to return to IUP for a day of celebrating those bonds is truly a perfect ending for our celebration,” he said. “It is especially meaningful that one of our Crimson Couples has chosen the vow renewal event to begin their lives together. I wish them a future of love and happiness.
“I hope that all of our Crimson Couples, including future Crimson Couples yet to meet one another, share a love that continues to deepen, with vivid and wonderful memories, and feel that IUP will always be home,” President Driscoll said.
The renewal event also will include a group photo and complementary glass flutes and coasters with the IUP 150th logo for the participating Crimson Couples. The coaster was created by IUP STEAMSHOP and the IUP Wood Center from wood from the Allegheny Arboretum at IUP.
A reception for the Crimson Couples will follow the vow renewal in the Oak Grove from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m., complete with the traditional western Pennsylvania cookie table—175 dozen cookies. Music will be provided by the Indiana band Somebody to Love.
The band members are Chuck Potthast, who retired from his work at the IUP Co-op and has a 1977 master’s degree from IUP; Lynne Jones; Wally Stapleton, who retired from his work in IUP’s Division of University Advancement and is a 1987 master’s degree graduate; Ryan Long, a 2002 bachelor’s degree and 2009 master’s degree graduate; and Bill Menk, a 1984 bachelor’s degree graduate.
Couples and guests for the Crimson Couples vow renewal are invited to submit thoughts and advice for future IUP students in the IUP Time Capsule, created by David Surtasky, IUP Lively Arts technical director, and Harrison Wick, associate professor and Special Collections librarian and university archivist.
More than 125 comments and thoughts were placed inside the time capsule, created by the IUP Wood Center, at the university’s annual Chalk the Walk event held in May. The time capsule will be stored in IUP’s Special Collections, with plans to open it during the university’s 200th anniversary.
IUP’s “official” 150th birthday is May 17, 2025; the university (then Indiana Normal School) opened for its first 10-week term on May 17, 1875, with 80 students, which grew to 150 students by the end of that first week.
Since its founding in 1875, IUP has evolved from a teacher-training institution into a doctoral research university recognized for its commitment to student success and achievement. IUP’s 2025–26 sesquicentennial and Impact 150 comprehensive campaign, launched in 2025, are designed to honor a legacy of educational excellence while looking toward a future of innovation, public service, and leadership in healthcare education, including the first college of osteopathic medicine at a public university in the Commonwealth.