After the success of Sesquicentennial Weekend this fall numerous campus groups have been working together to create a new tradition at UR ? Meliora Weekend.
This weekend will combine the Stonehurst Regatta, Parents? Weekend, alumni reunions and Homecoming Weekend into a single activity-filled event.
Each year the weekend will have a theme, next year?s being ?Freedom.? Each weekend will feature speakers connected with UR?s past and present, such as graduates or current professors.
Consolidating these various events is a great way to facilitate alumni involvement with the campus. While an alumnus who now lives in California may not be willing to travel to Rochester for Homecoming Weekend alone, offering a combination of events greatly increases the probability that the alumnus will be willing to make the trip.
The Alumni House will be doing the entire UR community a service by fostering more involvement among all of the members of the UR community. This will include both those who are currently on campus and those who have graduated.
Meliora Weekend will be a good opportunity for alumni to interact with current students. The mere presence of alumni on campus is beneficial to current students because it affords them a chance to interact with people who have left UR for ?the real world,? and to gain information about possible future careers, find out about UR?s past and also for these graduates to learn more about UR?s future.
Seeing that graduates are interested in UR and in staying involved will increase campus pride and will be an encouraging gesture to the current students.
Perhaps watching graduates cheering in the stands at the Homecoming football game will motivate more undergraduates to attend.
Meliora Weekend will benefit the alumni and, to a lesser extent, students. However, UR must be careful not to focus all of its resources on a single weekend.
Having a weekend to unify current students with alumni is a tradition worth creating, but not at the price of sacrificing the rest of the semester.