GrandparentsU event plans new activities on campus

College students will not be the only ones enjoying Central Michigan University’s campus this week.

CMU is holding the fifth annual GrandparentsU on campus to give children from eight to 12-years-old and their grandparents a chance to not only explore CMU but for alumni to enjoy their old stomping grounds.

Participants will be coming in at noon on Wednesday and staying in Celani Hall until noon Friday.

During the day, 130 kids and grandparents will be attending events hosted by the several individual colleges. In the evenings, they will use the Student Activity Center and the rock wall in Finch Fieldhouse for other events planned for them.

Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Anne Sanders said the event serves not only as a recruitment tool for children, but also a good event for aging alumni.

“We look at it from both standpoints,” she said. “For many of these grandparents, it’s their first time coming back to campus in years.”

Participants can choose from 22 different sessions to participate in, nine of which are new sessions. Sessions include “Bug Eyed: Things in the Scanning Electron Microscope,” “Behind the Scenes of CMU Public Television” and “Using Hollywood Film to Teach Science.”

New sessions include gardening and healthy eating.

“We try to switch it up,” Sanders said. “We offer the popular sessions again, but we have so many repeat participants that we try to give them new opportunities just so they’re not doing the same thing.”

Sanders said the majority of the grandparent participants are alumni, but can also be kids and their grandparents who have never been to CMU but are related to someone who attended the university.

There is a slight increase in attendance from last year, Sanders said, but they try to keep it at around 130 participants so everybody can stay in the dorm selected for the event.

“We try to cap it at around 130 because we house them in one residence hall,” she said. “It (all) depends on how many dorm rooms are available.”