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Family Weekend Article Final
Family Weekend Article Final
The 2020 Family Weekend at the University of Indianapolis will be virtual this year due
to COVID-19 restrictions. While Family Weekend in years past has allowed students, alumni and
their families to participate in activities on campus, this year will include activities on Zoom as
According to Vice President and Secretary of the University Lara Mann, pre-registering
for these virtual events is important in order to keep track of how many families will be
participating. It also allows organizers to help with any technical difficulties and prevent
Zoom-bombing, a term Mann used to refer to people entering Zoom calls without prior
registration.
Registration is also heavily enforced for live events for on-campus students to ensure the
events follow the guidelines of Phase 1.5 of the university’s reopening plan. Pre-registration is
available through the UIndy website as well as through links sent in emails to students and their
families.
“We do have people pre-registering, but basically, if you decide 30 minutes beforehand
that you want to do it, you hop on the website, and there's the link,” Mann said. “The thing we
need to be careful about for the virtual events is Zoom-bombing, and we have a plan for that as
well. We've got people monitoring and ready to work on that as well... For the virtual events, we
just want families to feel like they can almost be on campus and have some really interesting
according to Mann. Saturday’s activities will begin with a virtual coffee hour, hosted by
University President Robert Manuel that allows students and families to participate in an
informal discussion.
activities will include a political discussion with faculty members, a heritage tour with Dr.
Michael Cartwright. There will also be an art tour throughout campus. All of these events will be
Despite in-person events for families having to be canceled or postponed this year due to
COVID-19, such as a visit from Bill Nye, Barnes said having to plan events in a virtual format
“We can reach a much wider audience or people in locations that we couldn't before,
which I think is really exciting,” Barnes said. “It's a new challenge and as an event person, I find
that very exciting that we are forced to think of things in a different way and find solutions to do
According to Mann, having to incorporate a virtual aspect into Family Weekend has
opened doors that allow the university to reach a wider array of people who may not have been
“I think that we will now have a virtual element to Family Weekend from now on
because really we can reach our families across the globe instead of just right here in our
backyard, and so, to me, the bright side of all of this is that it has really opened our minds to the
quality that you can create with a virtual event,” Mann said. “I think this is here to stay because I
feel like if our goal is to welcome as many families, to embrace as many families as possible on
Family Weekend, this only expands our footprint, so I think it's here to stay.”