2021 Homecoming to feature double the reunions

^{Carson-Newman University is hopeful that a Oct. 30 Homecoming will bring the return of traditions such as the parade, which last took place in 2019.}

(Feb. 15, 2021) JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — With a hopeful spirit, Carson-Newman University is planning to celebrate Homecoming on Oct. 30, 2021.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University’s Alumni Board Executive Committee recommended postponing the 2020 Homecoming to combine with the coming year’s celebration.

The committee originally rescheduled Homecoming from Oct. 31, 2020, to March 27, 2021. After prayerful consideration, the board’s Executive Committee voted to instead prepare for a double reunion year to take place Oct. 30, 2021.

The 2021 Homecoming will feature festive 50-year reunions for the classes of 1970 and 1971 in addition to all the other reunion years.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a March homecoming would have meant the possibility that certain events, such as the football game and the music sampler, wouldn’t happen at all, according to Marty Blakely, president of the Alumni Board.

“We wanted it to be a true homecoming experience for everybody involved,” Blakely said. “In light of that, it made sense to postpone. Our hope as the Alumni Board is that, by late October 2021, we will be closer to some sense of normalcy to where that homecoming will resemble our homecomings of the past.”

The desire, he added, is for that to include reunions, the parade, food on Henderson Lawn, the football game and all the usual trimmings of a Carson-Newman Homecoming.

“We will have so much to celebrate when we can all be together once again,” said Hope Adkins, director of the Annual Fund and Alumni Relations. “We’re excited to share our plans for this October in the coming months.”

To find updates as they become available for the 2021 Homecoming celebration, visit: www.cn.edu/homecoming

Founded in 1851, Carson-Newman is a Christian liberal arts-based university affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The University is located in Jefferson City, Tennessee, among the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and has over 2,900 students. Carson-Newman offers 50 undergraduate majors, as well as associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.