The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a lot of different things to a lot of different entities, and Purdue Northwest’s campuses, like all colleges, have lived through it.
The vibrancy of the start of a new year was on full display in Hammond Thursday afternoon as the campus held its annual Welcome Rally. More than 1,000 students gathered in the commons behind the Student Union to shake off the pandemic doldrums and get to know their school and all it has to offer again.
It used to be that the campuses would hold a convocation, where administrators and senior leadership would don their graduation regalia and, after speeches, would ring a bell signifying the start to the school year, Interim Assistant Director for Student Engagement Brooke Hewson said. That was nice, she said, but it didn’t necessarily inspire students to seek out what else there was on campus besides learning and more learning.
So Hewson, with her new staff, set out to engage all the clubs, athletic teams and other organizations and get them to represent themselves to the incoming freshmen and even sophomores, who, let’s face it, really didn’t get to have a freshman experience last year because of the pandemic. After they got the groups’ buy-in, they snagged PNW Mascot Leo the Lion to lead a marching parade of students around the campus.
It was a far cry from the old, formal ceremony, Hewson said, but then, coming out of pandemic also provides an excitement and willingness to try new things.
“We were never allowed to use sidewalk chalk, for example, but this year, when we asked, they said we could,” Hewson said. “And our staff has people who’ve been students, alumni and now employees, so we know what student life can be if you reach out.
“COVID-19 gave us a breath of fresh life into student life.”
Student Government Association President Oriana White, of Hammond, worked the school’s 5.75 tent, which represents the five years of the two campuses becoming Purdue Northwest and their 75 years in existence. She called the rally one of the best traditions on campus.
“It’s a great time for people to come out and meet each other, and this is the perfect event for students to see that we’re about their support,” White, who’s working on her MBA, said.
For the guys over at the Sigma Lamba Beta table, the rally was a chance got them to get a little dancing in, as Fernando Castaneda and Jose Lozano were doing as fraternity brothers joined their brothers. Their chapter, which is a part of the country’s largest multicultural fraternity, started in 1993 but kind of fizzled out in 2001 before they brought it back to life in 2018, Castaneda said.
When they resurrected it, the campus mood was a lot different.
“The convocation wasn’t lively at all, and people weren’t out enjoying themselves,” alumnus Castaneda, 27, of Whiting, said. “But we started networking, and now we’re growing and all very tight-knit.”
For Lozano, Thursday’s rally was a “breath of fresh air.”
“Everyone’s been wanting to get out and experience life again. They found out who they were (during the pandemic, so now, they want to come out of their shell,” said Lozano, 23, of East Chicago.
Westville’s Welcome Rally saw 400 people earlier in the week, according to PNW spokesman Kale Wilk.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
