Nearly 500 former students have registered for the upcoming Fall Splash, a weekend dedicated to alumni outreach, which will be held from Oct. 14 to 15.
The event-packed weekend will begin on Friday. Check-in will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and there will be receptions at different schools on campus throughout the day.
Shelley Semmler, vice president of institutional advancement, said Fall Splash was created three years ago to merge alumni weekend and homecoming into one bigger event.
This year, the focus will be the dedication of the $65.5 million Athletics and Events Center.
“Because there wasn’t a football game to this particular date, Fall Splash is encompassing alumni weekend and the dedication of the Athletic and Events Center,” she said.
Saturday events include the annual Habidash, a picnic on the Campus Center Quad, the Alumni Awards Ceremony and the Athletics and Events Center dedication and dinner.
On Sunday, a farewell breakfast will be held at 8 a.m. and then alumni will have the rest of the day off to explore Ithaca.
Semmler said coordinators are expecting a large number of students to attend, including close to 900 people at the dedication dinner Saturday.
Lynne Pierce, associate director of the Office of Alumni Relations, said the event is part of the first annual Spirit Week, which is sponsored by the Student Government Association and the Office of Alumni Relations. The week will showcase different events and activities before Fall Splash.
Spirit Week will begin this Saturday and will feature events every day leading up to Oct. 14.
Pierce said holding Spirit Week had been attempted before, but was not successful.
Junior Rachel Heiss, SGA vice president of campus affairs and member of the Spirit Week student committee, said they reached out to campus organizations to get their support and participation.
“We knew that the biggest way to get something like this to be successful was to build a troop behind it — get people and organizations to support our goal and our mission,” she said.
Heiss said the different events give students the opportunity to express their pride for Ithaca College and network with alumni.
“This is just a chance to connect those two groups so that they can really share their experiences and how they can work together in the future,” she said.
Despite the strong planning and marketing behind the events, Pierce said, the turnout will depend highly on the weather this Saturday.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I’ve been watching the news,” she said. “The more attendance we have at the beginning of the week, then the more the word is going to get out about the happenings throughout the week.”
