Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: Aggie Spirit Week 2021

About this entry: Aggie Spirit Week is now the week-long celebration of events that includes Parent and Family Weekend, Golden Society and Homecoming Football. As presented at CASE District VII, we've overhauled homecoming to present a wealth of events, both in-person and virtual. Garnering interest with help from campus partners we reassessed Homecoming to offer activities for everyone. For example, football not your thing, we have wine tasting, library tours, biking across campus, botanical garden tours and many virtual options like game nights, wine and spirit tasting, lectures and community gathers. During COVID we addressed how to gather more people and found our attendance, event offerings and engagement soared. We integrated DEI intiatives like campus tours including Land Acknowledgements, along with content written by alumni on learning beyond Indigneous Peoples Day. Campus collectives around LGBTQ+ worked in tandem to provide an online LGBTQ+ Book Display with LGBTQ+ History Month. By transporting this event to the next level we strengthened ties across campus, expanded awareness of campus events and traditions around the globe, and leveraged capacity to serve as the caretaker of all events rather than the leads. This garnered support that envisioned a new way to present homecoming that is full of collaboration and alumni engagement.