Second Badger Family Spring Visit draws families to campus

The Parent Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is taking over the month of April and inviting families of students to stop by campus to welcome spring.

The second annual Badger Family Spring Visit offers hotel discounts, coupons and a welcome bag filled with great giveaways to entice families to campus.

The Parent Program highlights a number of free and low-cost events and attractions, from academic to artistic to athletic, throughout April for Badgers to attend with their loved ones.

“April’s just a really vibrant time on campus,” says Parent Program coordinator Patti Lux-Weber. “Between everything that goes on in the community and on campus, it showcases our community and campus really well.”

All featured activities can be found at http://www.parent.wisc.edu/visit. They include the Undergraduate Symposium, the Wisconsin Film Festival, the UW Band concert, the spring football game, Humorology and more.

The Parent Program held the first Badger Family Spring Visit last April to extend the welcome first-year parents receive during the November First-Year Parents Weekend to parents and family members of students of all ages.

“After First-Year Parents Weekend, parents were asking what was next,” Lux-Weber says. “We have created an event around the concept that it needs to be welcoming to all parents and family members, economical by offering low-cost and free events, and easy for anyone to register and participate.”

The Parent Program is partnering with the Business Improvement District, the Wisconsin Alumni Association, the Greater Madison Area Convention and Visitor Bureau and the University Bookstore to offer first-rate deals on campus accommodations, shopping and dining. A list of discounted hotels for participants can be found at http://www.visitmadison.com/badgerfamilyspringvisit.

Last year, about 300 families — approximately 1,500 people — participated in the spring visit and took advantage of the deals and discounts.

This year, Lux-Weber expects that number to double and hopes the event continues to grow over the years.

“We’re hoping to build that momentum,” she says. “This year we’ve expanded it by offering more coupons and showcasing more events and I just see that continuing.”

She also anticipates more participation from other campus entities. This year, International Academic Programs is holding a special open house for parents and students to learn about study abroad opportunities.

Lux-Weber sees this as the first of many partnerships.

“I see next year, maybe we’ll have more partners across campus that will want to offer programming for parents,” she says.