Firing up for Homecoming

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Office of Student Involvement and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will host several events on both campuses beginning Sunday to celebrate Homecoming Week.

Cindy Mata-Vasquez, director of Student Activities, said the weeklong celebration will consist of several first-
time activities, including the first event, Midnight Prowl, which will take place on Sunday, from 4 to 10 p.m. in Edinburg and 10 p.m. to midnight in Brownsville.

“We want to invite our students and student organizations to come out and decorate the campus to get it ready for the week,” Mata-Vasquez said. “We have been authorized to paint some of the windows here at the [Student] Union, so we are going to assign them to different student organizations.”

The Tip-off Party will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 15 on both campuses. The Student Union will provide free food and activities will include live music, a photo booth and a tattoo booth. Students can join in the festivities in the Main Courtyard on the

Brownsville campus and on the Chapel of the Lord’s Prayer lawn in Edinburg.

The Campus Programming Board will host comedian and musician Jon Raymond Fisher Feb. 15 at the Student Union Theater in Edinburg and Feb. 16 at the Main Courtyard in Brownsville.

Both shows will start at 7 p.m. “I got to see him in person at a conference in Oklahoma and he sings as part of his comedy act,” said Ixel De la Fuente, student program coordinator for the Campus Programming Board on the Brownsville campus and a senior exercise science major. “He’s really funny.”

UTRGV Fire Up will begin at 5 p.m. Feb. 19 on the Troxel lawn and Fieldhouse parking lot in Edinburg. The UTRGV Pep Band, cheer and dance team will perform and join a parade through the Edinburg campus. The event will conclude with the Lighting of the Letters.

De la Fuente said she would really want to go to the Lighting of the Letters.

“We do want to try and bus students from Brownsville to Edinburg,” Mata Vasquez said. “We are going to be handing out glow sticks and body paint.

We are definitely excited to go out there and for the first time, light the UTRGV letters.”

On Feb. 20, the Homecoming Tailgate party will take place at 5 p.m. at the Fieldhouse parking lot in Edinburg.

Departments, students, faculty and campus community are invited to participate in the BBQ cook-off. Immediately following the tailgate, the UTRGV Men’s Basketball Team faces off against the California State University Bakersfield Roadrunners.