September 28-30, 2007

Dear Parents and Family Members:

    It seems odd to be planning for Family Weekend when your thoughts

are more appropriately directed to summer and perhaps some details of

getting ready for the beginning of the academic year—but nonetheless

we are starting that process. Each year we get calls from parents who are

not sure when to come or how long to stay. Should they come at all?

Should they take a day off from work? Should they reserve a hotel room

or can they come for a single day? Should they make dinner reservations

and, if so, where? And so on and so forth.

    There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. You will need

to plan around your personal commitments and take some cues from

your son or daughter. We know from experience that more families of

first-year students tend to come than the families of upper-class students

but we see families from all class years and in large numbers. Many

families who live within a two-hour radius (David Riesman used to refer

to it as the “Laundry Belt” indicating that it was close enough to return

home for laundry service once a month) choose to come for Saturday

only while others in and out of the belt extend their stay.

    The enclosed schedule will give you a list of the options and events

available to you over the weekend and we hope you will attend those

that stir your interest and/or give you greater insight into your son’s or

daughter’s world here. At the risk of over generalization, you can probably

anticipate that your child is going to want to have a meal off-campus and

may have, through personal experience or the gossip network, discovered

a place he or she wants to go. Your child will have also discovered that he

or she brought some things to school they don’t need and have forgotten

others they do. For those of you driving here, this will mean you want to

leave some empty space in the car and for the others it may mean some

shopping. In fact shopping will be on the lists of many students—mostly

in supermarkets for the food that stimulates brain activity during hours

that seem quite normal to college students but ungodly to those of us

who lead better regulated lives.

    My advice would be to determine for yourselves how long you

would like to come for, see if there are any activities that you don’t want

to miss, and then ask your Trinity student to fill in the gaps. You will see

in the schedule that our Special Events staff have assembled an interesting

array of options, but the main purpose of your visit is to spend time with

your son or daughter in their new home. For many of them this will be

their first experience hosting you and yours as the beneficiary of their

hospitality.

    We look forward to seeing you all on campus and stand ready to help

you in any ways we reasonably may as you make your preparations.

                                                                   Sincerely,

                                                                   Frederick Alford P’04

                                                                   Dean of Students