Homecoming weekend has come and gone with plenty of events geared towards both students and alumni. 

A lot goes into planning this weekend— according to Molly Glewwe, Alumni Relations Director, planning for this year’s Alumni Weekend began immediately after the event wrapped up last year. 

Many offices on campus were responsible for the planning, designing and promoting of Alumni Weekend. Each office covers certain bases of this huge project. 

For example, Candy Hart in the archives set up an exhibit in both the Mitch History Lounge in the Klas Center and the Alumni House. This year the exhibit in Klas was focused on the Hamline area, as this area of St. Paul that used to be called Hamline. 

“[This weekend] gives a chance for alumni coming back to reflect on their connection to Hamline and for current students, staff and faculty to get a better idea of the history of the University and the area that Hamline is in,” Hart said.  

Senior Jennifer Fritton, a student worker for archives, felt similarly about this weekend.

“It is important to remember where we came from, who is before us and all they did,” Fritton said.

Marketing and communications also help amplify, promote and support the events by running social media and overall communication.

This year the marketing and communications creative team rebranded the homecoming and alumni weekend entirely. Liz Montgomery, art director of the creative team, designed everything — web graphics, signage, logos and banners. 

The Alumni Relations office is the main office in connection with the alumni side of Homecoming weekend. They partner with other offices to cover both internal and external aspects of programming. 

“Internally it’s a lot of the organization, the who, what, where, when, why,” Glewwe said. “Externally, we have a lot of alums who help us.”

The alums represent particular class years that help promote and invite others. They also give opinions of what they think people would like to do as well as have alumni boards. 

“This weekend offers the opportunity to both encourage alums to think of their own experience on campus and what stood out and was important to them,” Glewwe said. 

Glewwe shared how events are important to alumni for two main reasons.

“That is one part of it: the history and remembering and nostalgia. The other part of it that goes side by side is how we can say look at all that has changed and all the awesome things our students are doing today,” Glewwe said. “And it’s just fun, and that’s important too. It’s a pleasure to be able to work on a college campus and be on a college campus. It is fun to bring people back.”