You can tell your parents they won't be tailgating at Parents Weekend this year.
With a resolution from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and negative reactions to limited space at last year's combination of Parents Weekend and Homecoming Weekend, Tufts officials decided to schedule the two events separately this year.
Last year was the first time in approximately 20 years that the two events were the same weekend, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said.
"They were the same weekend because they're hard to schedule," Reitman said. "Homecoming has to be a home sports day, and we also want Parents Weekend to be a home sports day so that parents don't come to Tufts while their students are gone."
Reitman said that there are eight weekends of sports competitions, and only half of them are home, which limits scheduling to only four weekends.
"We ideally want [Parents Weekend] to be in the fall when there's foliage so that people can enjoy that," Reitman said.
"We don't want it to be so close to the beginning of the year that parents who just dropped their students off are coming back, nor so late that it's winter."
Reitman said that religious holidays have to be taken into account, which also limits the choice of weekends.
"It leaves you with very few choices, and last year it was impossible to find two separate weekends," Reitman said.
Shortly after the busy weekend last year, a resolution from the TCU Senate made clear its disapproval of such simultaneous event planning in the future, arguing that homecoming festivities and parent visits did not mix well, according to Reitman.
"I interpreted the Senate's resolution as, 'We look forward to this grand celebration of Tufts and school spirit, and then you went and ruined it by inviting our parents," Reitman said.
Director of Athletics Bill Gehling, Director of the Parents Program Jessica Papatolicas, and Dean Reitman made the decision to plan the weekends separately this year.
"We did take [the Senate's resolution] seriously," Reitman said. "There were also other challenges such as competing needs for space. It was tough to book events, and catering was stretched to the limits."
Reitman said that having the weekends separated this year enabled increased attendance at the Homecoming pep rally on Sept. 29.
"We had over 1,000 people at the flag pole at the pep rally this year, which couldn't have happened if it was Parents Weekend, because everyone would be at Legal Sea Foods," he said.
Reitman said everyone seemed happy about the switch.
"The biggest problem was that students wanted to spend Saturday at the Homecoming game from 1:00 p.m. on. By that time, parents have an expectation that if they come to visit you're going to spend the time with them," he said. "You can't be at two places at once."
"It seemed like people weren't too happy with decision," junior Megan Keily said.
"Students didn't want to bring their parents to the game because of all of the alcohol. It probably wasn't the best choice for Tufts in terms of public relations because of the nature of homecoming weekend," she said.
Junior Katie Wulster agreed. "I would say that for the parents that saw everyone drunk, it probably made our school look pretty pathetic," she said.
Sophomore Lauren Monaco said that having the two events on the same weekend affected her first impression of Homecoming Weekend. "Last year, I was with my parents and I didn't even go to the game," she said.
"My parents saw people coming from the game, completely muddy and drunk and they were just confused," she added.
Reitman said that he doesn't expect to schedule the two events for the same weekend in the future if it can be avoided.
