This week’s SGA meeting featured KSU President Daniel Papp and Athletic Director Vaughn Williams, who announced events for Founders Week and a contest to name the university’s new live owl.
Founders Week will be a week-long celebration to commemorate KSU’s 50th anniversary. The festivities, which include a number of events and keynote speakers will begin Oct. 7.
“That week we will be commemorating the founding of Kennesaw State University,” Papp said. “We were chartered on Oct. 9, 1963, and we decided to declare it Founders Week.
It’s not every day you celebrate your 50th anniversary,” To commemorate the university’s anniversary, several events will be held each day.
On Monday, KSU will host Dr. Thomas Scott’s book launch and signing. The book is “Kennesaw State University: The First Fifty Years, 1963-2013.” KSU will also reveal the KSU archives’ historical exhibit and website, “The Kennesaw State Spirit: KSU at 50.”
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, students will have the opportunity to meet author, motivational speaker and Georgia Tech football alumni, Sam Brack, who will be joined by Coach Bill Curry to give a presentation titled “My Orange Duffel Bag.”The lecture will discuss Brack’s journey from his rough childhood to adulthood where he played football at Georgia Tech. Brack travels around the country raising money for The Orange Duffel Bag Foundation to help men and women who are homeless and experiencing tough situations.
Brack’s presentation will be held in conjunction with KSU’s homelessness awareness week, which Papp said “should be a very moving convocation for students.”
The Founders Day Concert is set to feature KSU’s orchestra and will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at the Bailey Performance Center.
“This concert is a specially written symphony for Founders week” said Papp.
On Thursday, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute and former Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough will give a keynote address titled “Higher Education: The Next 50 years.” This will be followed with a panel examining the future of public higher education. The panel will include speakers Mark Becker, the president of Georgia State University and Renva Watterson, president of Georgia Highlands College.
To end Founders Week, KSU will host a panel discussion on Friday, facilitated by Dr. Papp and Erik Malewski, the university’s Chief Diversity Officer. The panel is titled “The Evolution of Inclusion at Kennesaw State University” and is set to discuss changes that have taken place at KSU within the past five decades, including race and LGBTIQ relations.
In the afternoon, there will be a gathering on the Campus Green entitled “Celebration on the Green” offering free food and activities at 3 p.m.
There will be three groundbreakings throughout Founders Week, including the Dr. Betty Siegel Student Recreation and Activities Center, KSU’s Horace W. Sturgis Library expansion and the Skip Span connector, which Papp said will alleviate traffic congestion when it is finally built.
Also In attendance Thursday was KSU’s Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams, who announced that KSU would reveal its first live mascot at “Flight Night” on Oct. 19. After receiving an overwhelming response of 10,000 votes in two weeks for the design of the new football helmet, Williams said he hopes to get the same response for the voting of the owl’s name.
“I want to encourage student support to name the owl like the one we had for the new helmet,”Williams said. On Oct. 19, the name of the owl, along with the winner of the contest will be revealed.
“Football helmets go and change,” Williams said, “but you can’t name a live mascot every day.,” Williams also announced that KSU will host a volleyball championship Nov. 20- 22 in the Convocation Center.
“We are hosting championships for the first time in a long time and we want to do more of it,” Williams said. “It’s going to be great year and it’s only the beginning.”
