SMU welcomes college students’ households with enjoyable occasions at Family Weekend 2026 – The Day by day Campus

Every fall, SMU dedicates a weekend to inviting households to expertise campus life and join with college students and the college group. One of probably the most important and beloved traditions on campus, this 12 months’s Family Weekend falls on Sept. 25-27, which has been hosted by the Student Foundation since its institution in 1973.

Family Weekend will kick off Friday at 1 p.m. with the Inside Look occasion on the second flooring of Hughes-Trigg Student Center. At Inside Look, college students and households can communicate with representatives of educational departments and organizations to study in regards to the alternatives offered on campus.

At 3 p.m. the Welcome to the Hilltop occasion will happen within the Gene and Jerry Jones Atrium of the Owen Arts Center. This more-formal occasion features a welcome from President Jay Hartzell, soccer coach Rhett Lashlee and Student Body President Jazmin Darjean. It will even characteristic performances from some Meadows School of the Arts college students, Family Weekend Chair Riley Murray stated.

Hartzell’s speech will give attention to the college’s growth and emphasize how SMU college and directors assist college students’ success.

“I want to do it in a way that I hope resonates in particular with the parents,” Hartzell stated. “So they can see how we think about what it is that we deliver in the classroom, the kind of exceptional faculty that we have here that are doing that work, and then also from athletics to the arts to extracurricular life, how our students’ experiences are so important to us.”

At 5 p.m., visitors can attend the Fish Fry, hosted by the Association of Black Students, within the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom and on the Mary Hay Peyton Shuttles Lawn. The occasion will characteristic a home-cooked meal ready by SMU Executive Director of Student Development and Engagement Jennifer “JJ” Jones.

A practice set 30 years in the past, it began out at what was the intercultural useful resource middle as an off-the-cuff gathering organized by the Black college and employees that ultimately expanded.

“We kept growing out of the buildings that we were in,” Jones stated. “And we ended up in the student center probably in the late 90s, maybe early 2000s, and we’ve been doing it at the student center ever since.”

For Jordan Diggs, president of the Association of Black college students, one of many highlights of Family Weekend is the way it brings everybody collectively.

“Even though we have ABS Fish Fry, it’s not just all of Black students’ families coming. Everyone goes to the first event, then they make their way around campus,” Diggs stated. “And so I just like how each and every event kind of encompasses each and every family.”

Friday evening will conclude with Night on the Lawn from 7 to 9 p.m at Annette Caldwell Simmons Lawn, the place households can get pleasure from a efficiency from the nation dance stunt staff Mustang Mavericks, reside music, Texas meals and an opportunity to socialize with different households.

On Saturday, SMU will host Missouri State at 8 p.m. at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. Before kickoff, the Boulevard opens at 5 p.m., which is much more vigorous than typical, Hartzell stated.

“I think that when you get to see that many families come together, all enjoy each other’s company from all parts of the country and even around the world, I think that’s awfully special,” Hartzell stated.

What makes Family Weekend so basic to SMU is the way it unites college students and households collectively.

“Especially now since we have such a large freshmen class, I’m really excited to see how everyone enjoys coming to campus and getting to see our beautiful campus for the first time,” Murray stated.