Mavericks on the Mall brings fun for all 

More than 800 students, alumni and community members attended Minnesota State’s newest Homecoming event, Mavs on The Mall. 

The event was organized by the Alumni and Foundation Center team and President Edward Inch’s Office. Administrative Assistant Courtney Conroy said that the purpose of the event was to bring a broader community into campus.

“The more we talked about it, the more we brainstormed about it, we wanted to make sure we incorporated activities that cater to kids, families, current students and prospective students,” said Conroy.

Inch explained that campus should be a community center where people come together, meet and have positive experiences.

“The idea was, how do we bring more and more people to campus in ways that can create an engaging atmosphere that invites families to come, that invite students to come and alumni to come,” said Inch. “And the idea behind that is to create a family friendly atmosphere with the games and things for kids, but also opportunities to have a tour, to have some food or to walk around and meet with people and to engage people before the football game.”

Yard games, a bounce house and 30 vendor tables were present at the event. Conroy said the activities available during the event went better than it was expected.

Gregory Wilkins, associate director for the Centennial Student Union and Student Activities, said the event is about bringing community together and celebrating what it means to be a Maverick.

“We have over 100,000 of us all over across the planet Earth,” said Wilkins. “Right now we’ve got students from 97 different countries and that just creates that sense of what it means to be thinking about big ideas and real world thinking.”

According to Conroy, over 120 alumni attended the event.

“We envisioned an inclusive community event that had a little bit of something for everyone that provided a chance to experience and reconnect with the University,” said Danielle Duffey, associate director of the Alumni and Foundation Center.  “We brought back hundreds of alumni, families, and university friends back to our campus for Mavericks on the Mall.”

Director of Alumni and Foundation Center Brian Zins said the event was amazing. The table for Alumni and Foundation Center was visited by people who have not been on campus for over 30 years.

“No matter whether it’s been a couple of weeks, a couple of months or years since they visited, our campus is always open to them,” said Zins. “This event truly exceeded our expectations. We’re already making plans for how to make next year’s Mavericks on the Mall bigger and better. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. We anticipate this event to be a campus tradition.”

Header photo: Nathanael Tilahun/The Reporter

Write to Amalia Sharaf at amal.sharafkhodjaeva@mnsu.edu