Welcome Week

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The Welcome week events have been planned since last semester, before the game was announced to be on Thursday at 10 P.M. Before you jump on the U, as a student affairs professional, it is not ideal timing, but it is extremely hard to book venues on short notice, especially if there are outside orders that need to be placed and set-up and clean-up to occur, staffing, food, everything.

This event is also partially sponsored by the Greek Community and OSA and has often been the most highly attended and most fun event of Welcome Week. However I wouldn't be surprised if they have contingency plans that have some sort of set-up for the game as well after the Date/time were announced.
 

CrocShots said:
The Welcome week events have been planned since last semester, before the game was announced to be on Thursday at 10 P.M. Before you jump on the U, as a student affairs professional, it is not ideal timing, but it is extremely hard to book venues on short notice, especially if there are outside orders that need to be placed and set-up and clean-up to occur, staffing, food, everything.

This event is also partially sponsored by the Greek Community and OSA and has often been the most highly attended and most fun event of Welcome Week. However I wouldn't be surprised if they have contingency plans that have some sort of set-up for the game as well after the Date/time were announced.
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It shouldn't be too difficult to show the game during this event.
 

CrocShots said:
The Welcome week events have been planned since last semester, before the game was announced to be on Thursday at 10 P.M. Before you jump on the U, as a student affairs professional, it is not ideal timing, but it is extremely hard to book venues on short notice, especially if there are outside orders that need to be placed and set-up and clean-up to occur, staffing, food, everything.

This event is also partially sponsored by the Greek Community and OSA and has often been the most highly attended and most fun event of Welcome Week. However I wouldn't be surprised if they have contingency plans that have some sort of set-up for the game as well after the Date/time were announced.
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They didn't announce the game time and date last week. This is the culture problem Jerry Kill is talking about. Do you think students at Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska hell Ole Miss or Iowa State would go to an inflatables and snacks event over watching their opener on TV?
 

NateDawgUM said:
They didn't announce the game time and date last week. This is the culture problem Jerry Kill is talking about. Do you think students at Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska hell Ole Miss or Iowa State would go to an inflatables and snacks event over watching their opener on TV?
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Michigan has an official event for the Alabama game at Michigan Stadium:

http://events.umich.edu/event/9319-1139813/welcome/1/tab/tag/tags/welcome+week

I agree not having an official welcome week event for our game - or involving our game - is shoddy.
 


Exactly... the date and time of this event has been known for quite some time. Plenty of time to properly account for coverage for the Frosh class activity.
 

NateDawgUM said:
They didn't announce the game time and date last week. This is the culture problem Jerry Kill is talking about. Do you think students at Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska hell Ole Miss or Iowa State would go to an inflatables and snacks event over watching their opener on TV?
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Dead on. This is especially important for incoming freshmen. If they put together an event like this, it would send a signal to them from Day 1 of stepping on the foot of campus that football is something of importance to the university. It would be a dramatically-more-successful approach for the university to take some initiative in signaling to the students that a culture change is taking place with an event like this, rather than just hoping 18-year-old students all of a sudden magically decide on their own that football needs to be a focal point of the university.
 

Welcome week leader here. The game will be shown at this event according to the handbook that all freshmen will be receiving. The event is also optional.
 

Wouldn't want to wake the drunks at Buffalo Wild Wings or the parking lots around the stadium that will be trying to get their beauty rest.

Coolew01 said:
Because of noise ordinances, being a work night it might be too late in night to show game on jumbo tron. Is the new scoreboard in Williams done yet? Might be an alternative.
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Serious question. What are inflatables? The only kind i know are not pc enough for the U.
 

BOOM! said:
Welcome week leader here. The game will be shown at this event according to the handbook that all freshmen will be receiving. The event is also optional.
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Are they going to have the game on at the inflatables event, or are they going to have inflatables at the Gopher fb opening night/welcome week event?

Having the game on is nice, but I think the point we are making is that the focus - what has proven to bring students together at other schools probably more so than any other campus function - should be the football game and a party put on to accompany it.
 

I just sent a tweet to Norwood asking why the game isn't a bigger emphasis. We'll see what he says? Probably something along the lines of "That's a great idea for next year!" Except that there won't be a game going on during that time next year.
 

Here is my idea for this event. This is as someone who has gone to this the past 3 years (the fact that I was only a freshman the first time and never was technically supposed be there afterwards not withstanding). It is actually a pretty fun event, if nothing else for the ridiculous amounts of free food that you get.

If available, why not have it at the Stadium while showing the game on the big screen? There is certainly plenty of room for the inflatables and other games on the field. Have the food vendors set up in the concourse. It will allow people to watch the game while doing the activities associated with this event.

My freshman year in '09 they had the "Explore the Twin Cities" event during the Syracuse game. So they literally bused us away from campus during the game. We then had the "Explore U" organization fair right after that. I remember basically seeing a couple plays when ducking into Tom Reid's in St. Paul and watching the winning field goal on the Mariucci Arena concourse TV.
 



BMEnGopher said:
Here is my idea for this event. This is as someone who has gone to this the past 3 years (the fact that I was only a freshman the first time and never was technically supposed be there afterwards not withstanding). It is actually a pretty fun event, if nothing else for the ridiculous amounts of free food that you get.

If available, why not have it at the Stadium while showing the game on the big screen? There is certainly plenty of room for the inflatables and other games on the field. Have the food vendors set up in the concourse. It will allow people to watch the game while doing the activities associated with this event.

My freshman year in '09 they had the "Explore the Twin Cities" event during the Syracuse game. So they literally bused us away from campus during the game. We then had the "Explore U" organization fair right after that. I remember basically seeing a couple plays when ducking into Tom Reid's in St. Paul and watching the winning field goal on the Mariucci Arena concourse TV.
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This. In retrospect, it frustrates me that they shuttled us away from campus during the game. I got back to Mariucci just in time for the GW FG. I should have just skipped the Welcome Week event, but at the time, the Leaders made it sound mandatory, OR ELSE.
 

All the talk about student ticket sales, and this? The need to boost tailgaiting, Inflatables? I would rather they do nothing, than this. I for one would find a sponsortto award best tailgaiting tent, best menu, best refreshments, most tickets purchased, with judging to be announced around 9 PM. Winners would be awarded the tailgaiting space of their choice for the year. A small contigent of the band would be marching around campus alerting everyone of game time. The Bank would open around 9, you would need a ticket voucher or reciept. The Jumbotron would be lit, the stadium lights would be on. As the game came on, the lights dim. You can watch from your seats or from the field. If I came up with this in 10 minutes, they must have taken how long to come up with the inflatables?
 


TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
Are they going to have the game on at the inflatables event, or are they going to have inflatables at the Gopher fb opening night/welcome week event?

Having the game on is nice, but I think the point we are making is that the focus - what has proven to bring students together at other schools probably more so than any other campus function - should be the football game and a party put on to accompany it.
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I agree with your point, i just wanted to clarify the situation
 

Winnipegopher said:
Serious question. What are inflatables? The only kind i know are not pc enough for the U.
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It doesn't appear that anyone answered your question, so here you go:

kid-kwws-9018-L.jpg
 

dpodoll68 said:
It doesn't appear that anyone answered your question, so here you go:

kid-kwws-9018-L.jpg
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Thank you. That is what I thought they were but this now begs a second question. Aren't those inflatables meant for children's birthday parties? How do university students use them?
 


Winnipegopher said:
Thank you. That is what I thought they were but this now begs a second question. Aren't those inflatables meant for children's birthday parties? How do university students use them?
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They only get this one basketball one where you can jump and dunk and stuff, not castles and stuff. There is AN inflatable and a rock climbing wall, food, tailgate games, etc.
 

CrocShots said:
They only get this one basketball one where you can jump and dunk and stuff, not castles and stuff. There is AN inflatable and a rock climbing wall, food, tailgate games, etc.
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And a very surprised looking "coed".
 

I can see not having the watch party @TCF, with the 10:00PM start on a weeknight. However, the headlining Welcome Week program for Thursday night should be the football game, with the inflatables and other party activities as a prelude to the game.
 

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