09HomecomingCheerFayetteville State University will celebrate its 2018 homecoming week Monday, Oct. 22-Sunday, Oct. 28. 

“Homecoming is a welcoming home for our alumni, supporters and the community; we ask the community to celebrate in homecoming with us,” said YaKima Rhinehart, senior director of alumni affairs at Fayetteville State University. “We also want to acknowledge our students; it is their homecoming as well.” 

Rhinehart added this is the time when students will begin to create their own traditions of how they celebrate, create their memories and do the things that will bring them back to campus years from now. 

The homecoming activities will begin Monday and progress through the week. “The student activities that kick off the week are the coronation for Ms. Fayetteville State and Ms. Homecoming,” said Rhinehart. “Fayetteville State has long been a campus that supported a large commuting student population, and we are always very deliberate about making sure our commuter students feel (as) much a part of the on-campus experience as possible.” 

“On Thursday evening, Oct. 25, we will have alumni headquarters set up at two hotels, which are the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel and The Holiday Inn on Cedar Creek Road,” said Rhinehart. “That evening at 7 p.m., we will have a Bronco Paint & Sip Expo at The Holiday Inn as an opportunity to mingle and reconnect with one another while sipping on a glass of whatever it is you choose and paint.” 

   The homecoming parade takes place Saturday, Oct. 27, at 10 a.m. followed by the football game at 2 p.m. FSU will play Livingstone College. “After the game, we will celebrate our class that is in their 50th reunion,” said Rhinehart. “That will be with a reception at 5 p.m. on the lower level of The Rudolph Jones Student Center.” 

   Saturday evening concludes with the Fan2See Fest Concert featuring Young Dolph, G Herbo, Key Glock and special guests at 8 p.m. at the Crown Coliseum. 

   Other homecoming activities include the Gospel Explosion, Greek Yard Fest, the Alumni Sundown Party, the IA Homecoming Cookout, a Heroic Women-Comic & Pop Culture Art Exhibit, Toni & Terence Live Homecoming Podcast, McDougal Scholarship Dinner, SAC/WAC Bazaar, tailgating, The Alumni Welcome Center, Miss FSU Alumnae Queens’ Legacy Tea and much more. 

   “I like to remind our alumni that it is not just about reconnecting, it is also about reinvesting in the university as well,” said Rhinehart. “We would not have careers and these livelihoods that we have was it not for the time we spent and were shaped and molded along with the education we received at Fayetteville State University.” 

   Following homecoming, on Oct. 28, FSU will host The Walls Group and Koryn Hawthorne, a Gospel concert, at Seabrook Auditorium as part of the Seabrook Performance Series. It starts at 6 p.m. 

   For more information about FSU’s scheduled activities, visit www.uncfsu.edu.