By Cole Strzelecki, Staff Writer
From Friday, October 22 through Sunday, October 24, our university held its Family and Friends Weekend. This weekend encouraged parents of Western New England University students to visit on campus. Accompanied by great weather, this weekend was quite a success for our university.
Family and Friends Weekend featured a wide variety of events for parents and their students to take part in. This plan is done to create a good balance between athletic competitions and social activities. The available events included roller skating, spin art, and family bingo.
On the topic of these events, Melissa Lambert, the director of the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership, commented highly, “We had a good variety of events,” she began, “It allowed for families to choose what they wanted to go to.” The amount and nature of these events help to create a welcoming weekend for those involved.
However, these events may not be on the schedule for next year’s Family and Friends Weekend. Switching up the available events helps keep the activities of Family and Friends Weekend fresh and new, attracting more students of our university to join in on the fun: “We like to mix things up,” Lambert said, “Of course we’ll keep the traditional events, but there may be other novelties added on.”
Some of these more “traditional” events Lambert mentioned are the “Residence Hall Association’s Bed Race” and the “Pancakes with the President” event. These are yearly events that occur at our university that will continue to occur into the coming years: “There’s always room for improvement, but some traditions just stick.”
Alongside the many events of the weekend, Western New England University’s very own sports teams acted as a major attraction. Our university’s football team won their game 49-0, and our field hockey team won 5-0. These games were perfect opportunities for parents to see their students play their sports and offered a fun time for other students and their families.
But how was this weekend as a whole? Well, Lambert described the turnout as “on par or a little higher” than previous Family and Friends Weekends. Eight hundred parents registered for their visit before the weekend and many more registered during it. The total number of registrations totaled up close to one thousand people and was made up mostly by first-year and sophomore students.
“I appreciate that we can do this in person again,” Lambert stated, “Sophomores at our university had to experience a virtual Family and Friends Weekend last year; so many of them took advantage of the chance to experience one in person.”
Lambert was all-around glad to see Western New England University students and their families on campus connecting with other families: “The goal of Family and Friends Weekend is for parents to spend time with their student, and this year’s weekend pulled this off.” Lambert thinks that the planners of the weekend were quite successful in creating a weekend that was fun, enjoyable, and memorable by all.
