Madison Shumway
Life Editor
Madeleine Coles
News Editor
Every year come August, Bengal tigers crop up on store windows and paw prints appear around Pocatello.
Local businesses and residents celebrate the start of a new school year by painting the town orange and black before attending an annual school-year kickoff event. Welcome Back Orange and Black connects ISU students with the Pocatello community and introduces incoming students to their new home each year. The event boasts free food, raffle prizes, live music and dance performances and presentations from clubs and programs at ISU. There will also be carnival style games, karaoke and contests such as watermelon eating.
Welcome Black Orange and Black is a unique opportunity for new students to mingle with veteran students and get to know both the university and the community, said ISU student and CommUniversity representative Adam Reed.
“[The event] really is the best way to be exposed to what Pocatello has to offer in the shortest amount of time,” he said.
The free event starts at 4 p.m. August 28th at the Old Town Pavilion on Main Street, with buses available to shuttle students from campus to downtown. Pocatello Regional Transit buses will pick up from the Bengal Creek apartments on 2nd Street and from the bus stop in front of the Student Health Center on Cesar Chavez Way.
When students arrive, they can claim free Welcome Back Orange and Black t-shirts provided by ISU Credit Union. Students should bring their Bengal IDs to receive their shirts.
After pulling on their brand new school spirit shirts, students can explore academics and recreation at ISU. Displays set up around the pavilion, hosted by groups from the College of Arts and Letters to the Idaho Museum of Natural History, feature games, prizes and information about campus clubs and departments. This year’s vendors include restaurants such as Pizza Hut, Pizza Pie Cafe, Mackenzie River Pizza and Costa Vida, and other businesses of interest to students, like Textbook Exchange, Salt Lake Express and Costco.
The event will feature more restaurant vendors than in previous years, “which means even more food,” Reed said.Members of ISU’s marching band, cheer team and Bengal Dancer team perform at Welcome Back Orange and Black each year, introducing new students to longtime ISU traditions. The band and cheer and dance teams make appearances at ISU athletic games and other events.
Athletes from various sports, as well as ISU’s own enthusiastic furry mascot Benny the Bengal, will also be in attendance. Speakers will welcome new students to the ISU and Pocatello communities and kick off the 2017-2018 school year. Students with ID can receive raffle tickets to be entered into a drawing for prizes like parking passes, bookstore gift certificates, mini-fridges and more.
Students must be present at the time of the drawing to win.
Welcome Back Orange and Black is hosted yearly by CommUniversity, which aims to create connections between “town and gown”—that is, ISU and Pocatello in general.
CommUniversity throws another event in the spring, Celebrate Idaho State.
The school year kickoff will provide an opportunity to make friends at a new school, said incoming freshman and intended journalism major Daniel Butterfield. “It also might be a good way to combat the nervousness of starting college,” he said. “I hope to gain friends and become more comfortable and familiar with ISU.”
