Ithaca College is combining Alumni and Homecoming weekends into one large series of events this weekend, giving students and alumni the opportunity to network.

Brenda Carlisle, events coordinator for the Office of Alumni Relations, said in the past, Alumni weekend was held during the last weekend in May or the first weekend in June, while Homecoming has always been in October.

She said this year, the college decided to combine the two weekends because of financial and convenience reasons.

“Attendance [at Alumni weekend] has been pretty static for 10 years,” Carlisle said. “We’ve had anywhere between 500 and 800 alumni come back total for an event that’s pretty expensive to put on.”

Carlisle said she expects at least 800 alumni and guests to attend this weekend, in addition to a large number of students, faculty and staff. She said she believes the combination will bring more alumni to campus to meet current students and reunite with former professors.

“The idea is to engage alumni and to get them back to campus for an event that hopefully a lot of their friends will come back to,” she said. “We do hope in the next couple of years to top our numbers [more] than we ever had for alumni weekend.”

Kylie Burnside, president of the senior class, said the events will also draw more school spirit.

“It will make Homecoming a lot bigger this year,” she said. “It seems like [at] the pep rallies I’ve gone to in past years, there has not been a lot of involvement.”

Gretchen Van Valen ’93, director of alumni relations programs, said the idea to combine the events has been on the college’s radar for several years.

“That idea has been bouncing around for the last six or seven years,” Van Valen said. “It really [was] through a collective [effort].”

Donna Cohen ’84, a real estate agent, said she will be attending the weekends’ events and looks forward to returning to the college.

“My schedule never allowed me to come in June, and I didn’t think about coming for a Homecoming, so when I saw that it was combined, I was like, ‘That’s perfect,’” Cohen said. “I’m glad [the college] did that, because it’s the reason I’m coming this time.”

Philippa Green ’68, a music teacher for 32 years, said she prefers visiting the college during the academic year.

“Seeing it now, with the kids in session and going here and there, and actually having a population there, I think I’m going to like that a lot better,” Green said.

On Saturday, the annual Homecoming football game will be played against St. John Fisher. The game — free for faculty, staff, students and alumni with a college ID — will be at 1 p.m. at Butterfield Stadium.

 Sophomore DeAsia Gilmer said she’s excited about the networking possibilities.

“I’m sure a lot of alums will be at the game, and that’ll be a chance to get to know who you’ll be sitting right beside,” Gilmer said.

Seniors will also be able to network with alumni at the Senior Happy Hour tomorrow from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Student Government Association President Jeff Goodwin, who is also the student director of the alumni board, said the combination is a win-win situation for everybody — including SGA, which used to plan the Homecoming pep rally.

“We saw this as an opportunity to move away from the planning of the pep rally, because although we still value it, we feel that SGA’s mission is to be this liaison between the students and the administration,” Goodwin said. “Our mission is not to put on events.”

Though Carlisle believes the combination will result in increased chances for students to interact with alumni and for more people to have fun together, she said the new format does have its drawbacks.

“Staff on this campus are completely stretched thin with all the events: Public Safety, catering, obviously [the office of] Conference and Events,” Carlisle said.

To avoid chaos, she said registration for all events will be run out of Alumni Hall, though at some of the larger events, such as Senior Happy Hour and the Homecoming dance, attendees will be able to register at the door.

Carlisle said the event is geared toward current students every bit as much as it is toward alumni.

“If we can bring alumni here to students, we hope that for those events, maybe when students are alumni, they’ll see the benefit of attending and staying connected with the college,” she said.

Green said the college prepared her to be a teacher.

“The kind of teacher I am, I really owe to the college,” she said. “I was very proud to be a graduate of Ithaca College.”