Parents and other family members arriving at Brown for a weekend of campus events are no longer attending "Parents' Weekend." The Office of Public Affairs and University Relations has changed the name this year to "Family Weekend" in an effort to reflect the range of relatives that descend on College Hill every fall.
"We wanted to make it a more relevant name to what already exists," said Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs and university relations. "We find students invite stepparents, uncles, siblings -- not just parents."
Many students were unaware of the change. "I didn't know," Ian Gray '12 said. "It just sounds like Brown trying to be more P.C. in their naming of events."
Some students were surprised the switch hadn't happened sooner.
"I'm mad that it wasn't always Family Weekend," Robert McCartney '08.5 said. He said he once made up his own Siblings' Weekend so that his sister would visit. So far, the change has not affected enrollment statistics, either in total numbers or in types of registrants, but Quinn said that was not the goal of the switch. "We didn't anticipate that the name change would increase registration," she said.
Jenna Williams '11 said that, though this year only her parents are attending, she didn't think the change would affect who came to visit her on future Family Weekends.
"I think they kind of just assumed it was family weekend already," she said.
