Colgate opened its classrooms and put campus life on display for hundreds of parents during Family Weekend 2011, held Oct. 28-30.
This year, in addition to traditional tailgates and departmental open houses, the university offered several classes designed exclusively for parents. Geology professor and interim provost Bruce Selleck spoke on energy development in upstate New York, sociology professor Rhonda Levine opened a conversation on racial inequality in the context of increasing diversity, and a faculty panel discussed research funded through the Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute.
At the encouragement of President Jeffrey Herbst, English professor George Hudson redelivered his convocation address, The Beauty of Language, originally staged for the Class of 2015 last August. Hudson encouraged the audience to picture themselves inside the chapel, first-year students packed in the pews and faculty seated on stage.
“Surely language deserves our deep respect and perhaps our reverence,” he read. “Fill your memory with great words, make your heart the chapel of learning, the citadel of culture, then find your own tongue and speak!”
Though the speech was intended to rally Colgate’s newest undergraduates, it had a similar impact on their mothers and fathers. “The lecture was inspiring,” said Kenneth Williams, father of Delphina Gerber-Williams ’15. “We want to quit our jobs, read, and learn a few languages.”
All work and no play makes Raider cranky. So, after classes were finished for the day, parents headed down the hill to experience Colgate’s living-learning environment. Some went to art exhibitions and concerts while others watched films in the Ho Science Center visualization lab or played trivia at the Colgate Inn. Saturday, they met with faculty and cheered their student-athletes on the ice and the turf.
Family Weekend is designed to provide a memorable Colgate experience for parents, but alumni and current members of the Charred Goosebeak comedy improv group will also remember Saturday as the night they performed with comedian Jim Belushi at the Palace Theater. The television and movie star met with students early in the day, then joined them onstage that night, raising the roof while raising funds for the Madison County Children’s Camp.
“It was so helpful to talk to someone who’s done comedy for his entire life,” said Goosebeak member Ryan Diehl ’12.