Trace Phillips

Reporter

At the start of last year, no one imagined a pandemic taking over their lives.

As the MUW Alumni Association geared up in preparation for the university’s 2020 homecoming, COVID-19 would be preparing to cancel everything.

Now, more than a year later, there finally seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel of this long, unbelievable pandemic.

“For this year, for 2021, we were scheduled to have homecoming this month of April, but we have postponed it to August in hopes that more alumni will have had an opportunity to get vaccinated and will feel more comfortable about coming to an in-person homecoming,” said Lyndsay Cumberland, director of Alumni Relations and Donor Engagement. “However, again, our Long Blue Line auction has decided to move forward with having a fully virtual auction that will be happening next weekend.”

This virtual auction will be live for 24 hours beginning Friday, April 16, at 6 p.m. on the Long Blue Line auctions website. The auction raises money for various scholarships for students of The W.

The W’s new 2021 homecoming is planned for the weekend of Aug. 26-29.

The university’s Alumni Association will continue to host the spring fling for senior students. Cumberland says this year may look a little different because of the mask mandate on campus, but students will still be allowed some networking and even receive a professional portrait for future endeavors. This is much better than the alternative of cancelling.

University graduates are sad that homecoming won’t be happening in the spring, but it’s better than last year’s event, which was cancelled.

“We weren’t really able to continue with any of the homecoming events that that were originally planned, unfortunately, but that was obviously due to health and safety precautions at the time. It did really suck, but I am happy I was still able to graduate in time,” said Briann Benson, a 2020 graduate of The W.

Although some events were able to continue this year with safety precautions or technology, Cumberland said a survey suggested most of the alumni preferred to wait for an in-person homecoming to be held later in the year.

“Everybody — that would be like alumni award members, faculty grant recipients, student scholarship recipients — all of those people will be invited back to the August convocation to be recognized as well,” said Cumberland.

Cumberland said the annual Golden Girls Luncheon that was cancelled last year will be hosted for class years ending in zero, one, five, and six this August, so no class is left without being honored.