All Iowa State students -- returning and first year -- are invited to safely celebrate the start of a new academic year at Cyclone Welcome Weekend events Aug. 18-19. Faculty and staff are asked to encourage students to participate in this second annual, free event coordinated by the student affairs and president's divisions. Students will need their university ID for all events.
The athletics department is co-hosting a "Cyclone Magic Experience" Saturday night, Aug. 19 (7-10 p.m., north doors open at 6:30 p.m.) at Hilton Coliseum. It begins with a 7 p.m. pep rally featuring head football coach Matt Campbell and athletics director Jamie Pollard. For the rest of the evening students can shoot hoops on the Hilton court and enjoy Cyclone trivia games in Johnny's lounge and lots of fun activities -- face painting, selfie photo stations -- on the concourse. Free popcorn and pop will be available all evening.
The first 3,000 students will receive a gold Juicy Wiggle T-shirt in honor of the second-half Cyclone fan favorite song, and a half dozen students will win a door prize of two pregame field passes on Sept. 2 when the Cyclone football team opens its home season against Northern Iowa.
More activities, including inflatables, a mechanical bull and dance music by a DJ, will be outside Hilton in the adjacent Scheman Building courtyard.
Instead of their ISU ID, a ticket on the ISU Cyclones mobile app will admit students to the Cyclone Magic Experience. The athletics department has preloaded a Cyclone Magic ticket for every student on its app, and students will need to download the free app on Apple or Google Play. They'll use their Iowa State email to access their free ticket on the app, and door greeters at Hilton will scan their ticket to admit them. The app will help students keep up with all the Cyclone teams this year.
Saturday breakfast on central campus
The second annual Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) Breakfast returns to central campus Saturday (food served 8-11 a.m., activities continue through noon). ISU Dining will serve pancake and sausage on a stick, eggs and beverages. There will be games, inflatables and a caricature artist. And this GOAT breakfast actually features about 20 goats, ready for five sessions of goat calisthenics (8:15, 9, 9:45, 10:30 and 11:15 a.m). If it rains, GOAT Breakfast moves inside to the Lied Recreation Athletic Center.
Cyclone Welcome Weekend begins Friday evening with a carnival-themed cookout and activities inside the Lied center (6-8 p.m.).
Kudos to faculty and staff volunteers who, so far, have filled more than 110 volunteer slots at the three events. Katy Cran, who serves as communications advisor to senior vice president for student affairs Toyia Younger, said spots still are available Saturday evening to supervise smaller activities at Hilton Coliseum. Recreation services staff will oversee the on-court competitions.
"We're so grateful to faculty and staff for their willingness to engage with our students during this opening weekend," she said. "Offering safe, supervised events and involving faculty and staff in them is a great beginning to building our Cyclone community this year."
The three Cyclone Welcome Weekend events coordinate with Destination Iowa State programming for first-year undergraduates. Younger and university counsel Mike Norton co-chair the planning team for Cyclone Welcome Weekend. Questions can be sent to cww@iastate.edu.
