Parents and family members of the Class of 1999, arriving in Hanover today and tomorrow, can look forward to a busy '99 Family Weekend.
More than 1,200 parents and family members of freshmen will participate in this year's weekend, said Director of Student Activities Linda Kennedy, who is supervising the events.
"I think it's going to be a huge success," Kennedy said.
Visiting family members can choose from a number of possible activities including faculty lectures, panels, performances, sports events and tours.
The weekend begins with registration on Friday afternoon, and continues through Sunday afternoon.
College President James Freedman will give opening remarks to family members at a reception Friday night at 5 p.m., and Dean of First-Year Students Peter Goldsmith will address parents at 10 a.m. the following morning.
The first-year deans will be in their offices and available to talk to parents throughout the weekend, Goldsmith said.
"I have scheduled some open time on Friday afternoon for parents to come in and talk to me," he said.
Students involved in planning the weekend said they really enjoyed planning the event, and are very excited for its arrival, though some said the planning was stressful.
Nahoko Kawakyu '99, co-chair of the '99 Family Weekend planning committee, said she is looking forward to this weekend.
"We are really excited, and we're ready for it to start," she said. "We feel like we've done a good job."
Scott Jacobs '99, co-chair of the planning committee expressed similar feelings.
"The last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful, so I'm excited to see the work come to fruition," he said.
The chairs also praised the committee as a whole for its work on the project.
"We had a really good committee, which was more effective than it had been in years past," said Dhruv Prasad '99, co-chair of the committee. "They really hung with us, did what we asked them to, and had good ideas for the weekend."
Committee members said they were also very excited about the weekend from a personal perspective.
"My mom is coming with my sister from San Diego, and my brother is coming up from Boston," Kawakyu said. "We haven't been together, all four of us, in a long time, so I'm looking forward to having some time with my family."
But Jacobs lamented the fact that he will not get to spend as much time with his family as he would like to.
"My parents are coming, " Jacobs said. "It's too bad that I'm not going to see them all that much because of my involvement in the weekend, but we'll get a chance to spend some time together."
But not every freshman's family will be coming to this year's Family Weekend. Some students' families live too far from Hanover to make the trip.
"My parents will not be coming, because they're from San Diego, and it's kind of far," John Kim '99 said.
Other parents would have an even longer trek.
Sabina Hak '99, whose parents live in Indonesia, said her parents would not be visiting this weekend.
Some freshmen will be away this weekend for sports competitions, so their parents will not be coming.
Tara Pennington '99 said her parents are coming for Tennis Parents Weekend instead.
"My parents will be coming the following weekend for 'tennis parents' weekend,'" she said. Women's tennis is "away this weekend, so we didn't have the option, I guess."
Some freshmen whose families will visit this weekend did not know if they would be attending any of the scheduled activities.
Amy Antman '99 said she was not sure if she and her family would participate in these activities
But Jasmine Elwick '99, who is on the Freshman Council, said she and her family would attend the scheduled activities because she was involved in their planning and because she is participating in several of the events.
"I'm on the student panel, so my parents will be going to that," she said.
