A record number of people are expected to attend this year’s annual Homecoming celebration from Sept. 19 to 22, Associate Director of Class Advancement for the Georgetown Alumni Association Matthew Lambert said.
A wider range of alumni is expected to return to the Hilltop this weekend. “This year the alumni association extended a homecoming invitation to all past alumni as opposed to the graduates of the past 10 years; we expect to see several thousand return to Georgetown over the weekend,” Lambert said.
Georgetown’s most popular homecoming event, the Homecoming Tailgate, commences Saturday morning and lasts during the 1 p.m. football game versus Fairfield. Georgetown’s largest organized tailgating event will take place in Lot T and will require identification to consume alcoholic beverages. Students and alumni will receive ID bracelets and are asked to only bring canned beverages, as opposed to bottles and kegs.
For additional security, the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department will be stationed at the university exits to perform random sobriety checks to prevent drunk driving. “This year’s security measures are no different from last year’s homecoming,” Lambert said. He emphasized that the significant homecoming changes this year revolved around specific event planning, such as the revealing of a statue of Jack the Bulldog given by the class of 2000. This is to take place during halftime of the football game. The statue is currently on showcase in the lobby of McDonough Gymnasium. Also, the senior class gift of the class of 2002, a memorial park on N Street commemorating the memory of the Georgetown family and others who died on Sept. 11., will be officially dedicated. This event is open to the public.
Homecoming 2002 opened Thursday with the D.C. Regional Alumni Club’s Homecoming Happy Hour at Garrett’s Restaurant on Street. Today’s events last the entire afternoon and evening, with the Hoyas Unlimited Golf Tournament starting at 1 p.m. and the Women’s Soccer team kicking off against Big East rival Seton Hall at 3:30 p.m. Alumni will then invited be by University President John J. DeGioia to attend the annual Patrick Healy Dinner at 7 p.m., hosted by the Georgetown University Alumni Association and the African-American Advisory Board. Following dinner is HoyaStock II, an event featuring a battle of student and alumni bands. The musical standoff will take place at 9 p.m. on the Village C Patio.
Following the afternoon’s events will be the annual recent and old alumni class parties, consisting this year of the classes of 1979, 1993-1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Alumni and students then have the opportunity to say goodbye during Sunday’s 11 a.m. ass, the last planned event of the weekend.
