Public Invited to UMass Celebration of Founder’s Day, April 29, a Full Day of Free Activities on UMass Campus

UMass has scheduled a variety of activities from morning to evening on Founders Day, Wednesday, April 29. Founders Day is a beloved campus-wide celebration, held annually on April 29, to honor the University’s founding in 1863 and its history as a top public research university. The daylong event, often celebrated with a campus cookout on Haigis Mall, features numerous activities, including tours, demonstrations, and open houses.

Activities this year range from the educational to the humorous, such as the Lettuce Race, where members of the Lettuce Club hold their only meeting this semester to see who can eat an entire head of lettuce the fastest (2 p.m. at the statue of Metawampe). The winner becomes the next president of the club.

The Department of Anthropology has a full day of demonstrations of departmental activities from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Machmer Hall. These include programs on human evolution, archaeology, and archaeobotany, biological anthropology, comparative primatology, solidarity economies, and violence and conflict.

For those who want more active experiences, there are multiple tours of campus offered, beginning with a tour of campus trees at 9 a.m. and also a tour of the Du Bois Library at 11 a.m. and a campus walking tour at 1 p.m. There is also a tree climbing demo at 10 a.m.

There will be multiple exhibits on the natural world from the Rausch Mineral Gallery and Olsen fossil collection,  pollinators, the Waugh Arboretum, the Natural History Museum,  and the Seed and Herb Library. The Okanagan Wellbeing Collective is offering a rock painting activity to reduce stress, promote connection, and lift spirits at 4:30 p.m.

The day will be highlighted by musical performances by the Jazz Ensemble and the Graduate Brass Quintet. There will also be a Campus Cookout featuring healthy, sustainable, and locally sourced foods, along with lawn games, photo booths and information tables.

Other demonstrations include a glassblowing demonstration, a bouquet bar where visitors can make their own flower bouquets, and Wild Clay, an artistic and environmental exploration of the Tan Brook, the source of the campus pond.

The late afternoon will feature a concert with student performances from 4 to 6:30 p.m. and fire pits at the campus pond from 4 to 8 p.m. serving s’mores. And there is a softball game with UMass facing the University of Connecticut at 3 p.m.

This is only a brief listing of the available activities. For a full list, see here. All events are free.

Campus map here.