Students have the opportunity to show their families their home away from home during Family Weekend this Friday-Sunday. This year’s theme “Imagine the Possibilities” encompasses panel discussions, tours, art exhibits, performances, sporting events, and more.
Donna Krivoski, assistant director of development and director of parents’ programs, says, “It’s an ideal opportunity for parents to come, not only see, but also experience a student’s new home. Students have a sense of pride in showing their school to their parents. Parents get to see what Lafayette is all about from the inside. Before they were on the outside looking in and now they can experience it through their students’ eyes.
“It’s also a time to sit back and enjoy some good time with their sons and daughters. Students get to share this new chapter in their lives. Family Weekend makes parents feel part of the Lafayette family as well.”
Weekend highlights follow; for a complete schedule, visit the website.
Registration for Family Weekend will take place 3-8 p.m. Friday in the Landis Atrium of Farinon College Center. Open classrooms will be available that day 1:10-4 p.m. Courses and locations will be posted by 10 a.m. Friday in the Landis Atrium as well as on the parents’ website beginning Wednesday.
Student guides will take visitors on a new buildings tour at 4:30 p.m. featuring the newly completed Sullivan Lane Residential Complex and Skillman Library, which received an award from the American Institute of Architects this year. The tour departs from Farinon Center’s Atrium fireplace. There will be a repeat session 2 p.m. Saturday.
Evening entertainment on Friday will include Grammy-nominated Cuban band Tiempo Libre 8 p.m. at the Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18 and free for Lafayette students with ID, and can be obtained by calling the box office at (610) 330-5009.
Lafayette’s own a cappella groups Cadence, the Chorduroys, Quintessence, and Soulfege will take the stage with their unique harmonies for A Night of A Cappella 8 p.m. in Colton Chapel. The event is free, but seating is limited.
Registration for Saturday will be held 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Landis Atrium of Farinon Center. There will be various panels and discussions throughout the day on a broad range of topics. Participants may choose from among three panels for the 10-11 a.m. session.
Alana Gallo Albus, assistant director of career services, will moderate Imagining Your Future in Farinon Center, Marlo East. Staff and students who have used the Gateway program to explore career possibilities will discuss the program’s advantages.
Dan Bauer, professor of anthropology and sociology, and Lawrence Malinconico, associate professor of geology and environmental geosciences, will host Tech Clinic: Real Solutions in Farinon Center, Marlo West. Members of the current Tech Clinic team will discuss their proposals for revitalizing the City of Easton.
For Imagination Station: All Aboard for Travel Abroad, Roxanne Lalande, professor of foreign languages and literatures and director of study abroad programs, will moderate a panel discussion in Farinon Center, Marlo Center. Faculty members and students will share their experiences of travel, study, and cultural learning.
Families may tour the Office of Career Services 10 a.m.-noon at 201 Hogg Hall. Rachel Nelson Moeller ’88, associate director of internships and externships, will answer questions and provide more information on available programs.
There will be three discussions to choose from for the 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. panel session.
President Dan Weisswill deliver a welcome address and discuss exciting new opportunities at Lafayette in Farinon Center, Marlo Room.
Gallo will moderate Life After Lafayette in Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall. Current students will share how Career Services helps prepare juniors and seniors for life post-graduation.
Lalande will host a repeat session of Imagination Station: All Aboard for Travel Abroad in Farinon Center, Limburg Theater.
The Leopards will take on Penn in the Lafayette football home opener 1 p.m. at the newly renovated Fisher Field. Tickets are $8 and free for Lafayette students with ID, and can be purchased by calling the box office at (610) 330-5471.
There will be a guided tour of Easton, featuring preserved historical buildings and the restored State Theatre, 1:15-3 p.m. The trolley will depart from the Williams Center. Tickets are $8 and will be available at registration. Seating is limited.
Michiko Okaya, director of the Williams Center for the Arts gallery, will lead a walking tour of art galleries in downtown Easton 3-4:30 p.m. departing from the Williams Visual Arts Building, 243 N. Third St.
Immediately following the football game, Susan Averett, professor and head of economics and business, will present Birth Order: Possible Explanations for Your Family Dynamics in Oechsle Lecture Hall. She will explain the research on birth order and sibling relationships that she published in the academic journal Economic Inquiry this past April. Averett has appeared on NBC’s Today show, and her work has been featured in other national media outlets, including USA Today and the Boston Globe. She is the recipient of nine awards for teaching excellence, including the James E. Lennertz Prize for Exceptional Teaching and Mentoring.
Diane Shaw, special collections librarian and college archivist, will lead a historical walking tour of central campus 5:30 p.m. departing from the Williams Center.
Saturday evening entertainment includes Beatles tribute band Beatlemania Now 9 p.m. in Kamine Gym. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for children under 18, and free for Lafayette students with ID, and can be purchased at the door.
Sunday’s events begin with a campus landscape tour 10:30-11:30 a.m. departing from Markle Hall. Dave Kovach and Bob Frey, both groundskeepers with plant operations, will discuss the history and qualities of a selection from over 500 trees of 120 different species on campus.
Okaya will lead the Chateau Chavaniac tour 12:30-2 p.m. Buses will depart the Williams Center every half hour with the last bus leaving at 1:30. The Norman-French style chateau, built in 1932 by the late Allan P. Kirby ’15, was modeled after and named for the birthplace of the Marquis de Lafayette. Tickets are $3 and will be available at registration.
Family Weekend will conclude with College Choir’s concert preview of works-in-progress for the 2006-07 season 1:30 p.m. in the Williams Center auditorium.
Throughout the weekend, families are encouraged to visit four ongoing art exhibits on campus.
Testimonial II, based on artist Ping Chong’s epic oral history theater project Undesirable Elements, is on view at the Williams Center gallery. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.
Viewers can use interactive video installations to manipulate images of the Empire State Building in Mark Napier’s exhibit The Cyclops Series at the Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery in the Williams Visual Arts Building. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.
Skillman Library is the site for two exhibits. Books of the EPI-Center, which includes artists’ books from Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute, is on view in the Simon Room. Antarctica, featuring photographs by Pat and Rosemarie Keough, is on view in Lass Gallery. Hours are 8:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, and noon-10 p.m. Sunday.
The Family Weekend committee includes Ryan Osterweil ’08 (Forest Hills, N.Y.; chemistry) and Minza Zahid ’08 (Karachi, Pakistan; mechanical engineering and economics & business), executive chairs; Christine Welsh ’08 (Long Valley, N.J.; government and foreign languages) and Michelle Kinzie ’08 (Beverly, Mass.; economics & business and international affairs), academic programs; Kimberly Nieskens ’07 (East Northport, N.Y.; English) and Allison Kramer ’08 (Cherry Hill, N.J.; psychology), entertainment; TarynAnn Barry ’09 (Bridgewater, N.J.; history and government & law) and Maggie Oberrender ’07 (Bridgewater, N.J.; English and French), campus programs and exhibits; Alyssa Wisoff ’07 (New York, N.Y.; anthropology & sociology and American studies) and Caitlin Donnelly ’07 (Melvin Village, N.H.; government and law), promotions; Rachel Friedman ’09 (Potomac, Md.; psychology) and Will Choi ’08 (Wyckoff, N.J.; neuroscience and government & law), registration; and Amanda Zungoli ’09 (Randolph, N.J.; mathematics-economics) and Paul Sommers ’09 (Wenonah, N.J.; history), tours. Krivoskiand Pam Brewer, associate dean of students and director of student life programs, advised the committee.
For more information on Family Weekend events, contact the Office of Student Life Programs at (610) 330-5337 or deemerk@lafayette.edu, or the Office of Parent Programs at (610) 330-5048 or beerss@lafayette.edu.