Syracuse University and Hill Communications announced the program lineup for this year’s SU Showcase at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. Organizers also officially changed the name of the academic event from MayFest to SU Showcase.

The name change, reported by The Daily Orange Jan. 26, was an effort by the university to distance itself from the off-campus block parties that had grown in popularity during MayFest, and increase the academic focus of the event.

The announcement of the program lineup comes a week after the Student Association hosted a ‘Save MayFest’ forum questioning the name change decision. The press conference was an attempt to clarify the new purpose of the event.

The program lineup focused on student-oriented activities rather than the usual academic events. This year’s event takes place April 21, the day before Earth Day. The organizers said they wanted to have programming that followed the theme of sustainability.

Sara Guzzone, co-director of Hill Communications, said the new events aren’t meant to take anything away from the official vision of SU Showcase.

‘We’re trying to add an element of friendly competition to SU Showcase, to get people excited and get people out there,’ she said.

The day will begin with a breakfast for the first 1,000 students to show up, possibly held in the Carrier Dome or on the Quad, organizers said. The event will include a keynote address from a musical act not yet scheduled.

Organizers said they are hoping to secure an environmentally focused band to perform and give the keynote speech, said Kathleen Hopkins, co-director of Hill Communications. They had been working with Guster, an acoustic-pop band, but those plans fell through because of scheduling conflicts, Hopkins said.

Other events include a student-faculty triathlon, a ‘green’ art challenge, a relay race and a dance competition called Orange Groove, similar to ABC’s ‘Dancing with the Stars.’

The traditional chemistry shows, puppet presentations and demonstrations will still be held. There will also be a sustainability showcase and a teach-in on climate change.

Specific details and times of events were not announced and some of the locations of events are still pending.

Robert Enslin, communications manager for The College of Arts and Sciences at SU, said the university wants to do more to showcase SU’s creative and service work.

‘On a lot of fronts, MayFest has been very successful,’ Enslin said. ‘But I’ll also be the first to admit that we can always do things better. I know there are concerns, and we hear them.’

shmelike@syr.edu

Published on February 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm