The parents of junior Claire Stimson will be attending their sixth Family Weekend trip as part of a yearly tradition they’ve been doing since Stimson’s older brother, Joel, ’07, was a Whitman student.

As they make their five-hour drive from Seattle, several other parents and family members are making the trek out to Walla Walla from all over to see their Whittie this weekend and get a taste of what their student’s life is like on campus.

Coordinated by Nancy Tavelli, Campus Life Associate Dean of Students, Family Weekend occurs once every school year in the fall as an organized, three-day series of events and activities families can share with their Whitman student.

“We offer a variety of options, but our goal is to have families reconnect and spend quality time with each other no matter what they do,” Tavelli said.

The long menu of activities scheduled for the weekend includes course discussion groups, arts and crafts workshops, Planetarium shows, fund-raisers and student research presentations.

“Parents really seem to like to go to Theatre Sports, the A cappella groups, and all the other Whitman musical groups,” Tavelli said, speaking on some of the most popular events parents have enjoyed throughout the years. Our Town, presented by the Harper Joy Theatre, will also be showing all three days of the weekend.

Showing off their new home and lifestyle, first-year students tend to bring in a majority of Family Weekend visitors, according to Tavelli. She also mentioned that although sophomores and juniors bring in less family members, it tends to pick up during the student’s senior year.

Previous Family Weekend coordinator and former Whitman student Jed Schwendiman has noticed popularity of events and structure of the weekend have changed, but the numbers still keep climbing year after year.

“The attendance has risen dramatically over the last few years, it’ll be interesting to see the turnout this year,” Schwendiman said.

Both Tavelli and Schwendiman noticed recent numbers have been around a thousand, doubling since 2000.

Schwendiman believes that the increase could be due to a generational shift compared to what he saw during his time as a student.

“I think it might be the transition and level of involvement. Students today are coming in with parents who expect to have a higher degree of involvement in their son or daughter’s college
career,” said Schwendiman.

He also believes it could be the dramatic growth of businesses, restaurants and wineries in the Walla Walla area that has attracted so many family members to town.

“Family weekend is a good excuse to hang out with your parents and to show off what you are accomplishing at college,” said Stimson.

The parents of Stimson have been coming to Family Weekend ever year since 2003.

“The best part of coming is seeing our children in a place that they love, doing things they love to do, meeting their friends and hopefully meeting other parents. Also getting a chance to meet professors, see labs and classrooms that our children spend time in-putting their routine into context of everyday,” Stimson’s mother, Kay, said.

A complete schedule of events can be found online at whitman.edu under the Residence Life section. The information and sign-in table will also be providing schedules Friday at Reid Campus Center Foyer from 3-7 p.m.