UW News

July 9, 2009

Student rockers, athletes, cheerleaders, scientists all part of a summer of UW campus visitors

UW News

The Parapsychological Association, which studies psychic experiences and clairvoyance, will visit the UW this summer for a conference. Did you have a funny, sort of sixth-sense feeling they’d be coming?

OK maybe not. But the parapsychologists are among dozens of groups scheduled to spend from a few days to a couple of weeks on the UW campus sometime over the summer — more than 9,000 people in all.

The groups start coming right after spring quarter ends and keep coming until just before the new school year starts. Sometimes the people in Conference Services, a part of Housing and Food Services — and a very busy office every summer — have to do a “same-day turn,” helping one group exit and the next arrive all in the same busy work day. Or even a “same-morning turn.”

There’s the ultra-rocking Power Chord Academy, where teenagers show up with a desire to learn and leave with a recorded song and time spent in a band. And Tango Magic, where dancers come from all over to indulge in the smooth moves of Argentine Tango. And a three day celebration of poetry by Wave Books to be held in August at the Henry Art Gallery.

And bike races, cheerleader camp, football camp, and lacrosse, soccer, golf, volleyball and basketball camps. There will be young students studying physics, math and science — including a National Nuclear Physics Summer School — as well as Web design, digital media, robotics and more.

Many of the visitors are UW related, such as the many camps run by First Year Programs. About 5,500 students visit campus for two-day orientation sessions, where they register for fall classes and get connected with resources they’ll need in the fall, from financial aid to housing and transportation.

But many other groups — such as the parapsychologists and the tango enthusiasts — use the UW as a gathering spot for what amounts to an annual convention.

These, of course, include the Pacific Coast Banking School, which has sent students to the UW for study every summer since 1938.