The University's biggest weekend of the year - Homecoming - will be held a month earlier next semester as part of an effort to ease conflicts with Parents Weekend. Traditionally scheduled for late-October, Homecoming is set for Sept. 27, and Parents Weekend will be held on Oct. 18 - one weekend later than usual.
The changes were made by the Athletic Department and the Alumni Association, which hope to attract more students and parents to both events. In past years, some sports teams have missed out on Homecoming festivities - and some parents have been unable to visit campus during Parents' Weekend - because athletes have been at away games. The new scheduling aims to "look at dates more creatively," said Tim Brooks, Director of Alumni Relations.
Brooks said that in the past, the Alumni Association tried to put the idea of a new schedule on the table, but it had not worked because discussion started too late in the spring. This year, plans started early.
Last year, women's soccer and field hockey seasons were both finished by Homecoming, according to Sports Information Director Paul Sweeney. "Ideally," he said, "you hope to have football, men's and women's soccer, and field hockey that weekend."
All of those teams will be present at next year's Homecoming, said Athletic Director Bill Gehling, who looks forward to the revised schedule. "I think it will be a great campus atmosphere. We play Bates that weekend. It's a wonderfully festive event, and you have a better chance of good weather in late September."
While students seemed receptive to the idea of having more people around campus for Homecoming, some questioned the event's timing.
"I think it's too early," senior Erich Muhlanger said. "Homecoming implies the end of the season, a culmination of events. Maybe it would be better a couple of weeks later."
Junior Arun Lamba agreed. "The freshman are the ones that get into that stuff, and it might be too early to establish that this is their home for a Homecoming."
But freshman Ashleigh Cheung liked the idea. "I think it's better at the beginning of the year, because people are still trying to make friends and it's something fun to go to together," she said.
The dates for Parents Weekend have traditionally provoked discussion. According to Gehling, it is not scheduled in September because this comes too soon after parents drop off students at Tufts.
Director of Parents' Programs Eleanor Short said that due to scheduling conflicts outside of her control, timing has been a problem in past years. "The athletic schedule is made 12 years in advance, and we must work around religious and national holidays, which has been challenging at times."
"Unfortunately, we can't always meet all of the ideal requirements," Gehling said. "In three of the last four years, Parents' Weekend has been forced on a weekend when virtually all of our sports teams have been away."
The rescheduling of Parents' Weekend will create "a much fuller, rounder weekend," according to Short, now that it will involve the 300 or so families who want to see children involved in a sport. "In the past," she said, "we have always welcomed these families, but there has been some difficulty in scheduling."
Brooks said that now when parents come for Parents' Weekend, "they are guaranteed that their kids will be on campus."
Brooks called the changes "a kind of experiment," and said that dialogue with Student Activities, the Jumbo Club, the leaders of the Alumni Association, and University President Larry Bacow seemed to indicate that this would be a positive move.
"Of course," said Brooks, "there's always an initial resistance to change but parties seem to feel it won't dampen anyone's enthusiasm."
For the most part, students seem to agree with that sentiment. "More people on campus makes for a more exciting environment the whole weekend," Sophomore football player Reid Palmer said.
