By Mikhaila Dansby
For university alumni, keeping in touch with other former students is an important way to network and stay updated on the growth of Texas A&M-San Antonio.
This Sunday, when the university and the community gathers at the university’s unofficial Fiesta event that celebrates alumni, portions of proceeds will go to Texas A&M-San Antonio’s Alumni Relations office.
The event, named Jaguar Jam-Festival de Cascarones will be held at 3:00 p.m. on April 21 at Main Campus Building. Referred to as Festival de Cascarones last year, Jaguar Jam was recently added to the name after a new event that will be held that evening.
“Jaguar Jam,” is a line dance that will take place during the last half hour of the festival and will provide an opportunity for everyone to participate.
“The line dance provides an opportunity for everyone to celebrate together with one thing holding them in common—the university,” Douglas Carter, assistant vice president for university relations, said.
Carter said that events such as this one “keep our young alumni engaged with their university.”
Parking and admission into the event is free to all guests. There will be tents available with food, drinks, games and activities available upon purchase spread throughout the grounds.
Currently, this university does not have an alumni association but it does have an active alumni relations office that is making contact and building relationships with former students.
An alumni mixer was held last week and was initiated by the university’s recruiting staff. The mixer, Carter said, was to get people to reconnect peers and showed them the expansion of the master’s level programs.
Carter said that in order to have an alumni association, the university is required to have an affiliation agreement with Texas A&M-College Station. That arrangement, he said, is something they are working on but requires legal paperwork and will take time to complete.
Since 2001, the university has awarded diplomas to approximately 4,300 individuals. Some of these students have graduated with multiple degrees, Carter explained.
Many of those students are expected to come back to Sunday’s event with their families.
“We didn’t want something that was strictly adult because so many of our students already have children,” Carter said.
Students are encouraged to bring their friends and family to this event that will offer food booths, music and dancing.
There will be a tent titled Fiesta Kids Fun Zone provided for children to decorate their own cascarones during the Jaguar Jam: Festival de Cascarones. Sponsors such as Red McCombs, 102.7 Jack FM, The New 94.1 KTFM, Coors Light, and many more.
This year the alumni relations will have a tent for students who are preparing to graduate to update their information with personal email accounts.
Money raised at Jaguar Jam through the sale of beer, will provide funds for the alumni general scholarship funds.
Currently, the university has laid alumni pavers with all names from the 2001 through August 2012 alumni in front of Main Campus.
An alumni paver is a brick that gets printed with the students name and year of graduation.
Pavers are installed in the ground on the west lawn of Main Campus and are dedicated to the first 5,000 graduating students of this institution. The first paver is free to students when their first degree is earned at the university. As A&M-San Antonio expands there will be an opportunity for students to purchase a brick and have it installed in the new edition of the university.
Marshall Lasswell, director of facilities & physical plant, said Engravestone, located in Mason, Texas is contracted to do the engravings. The business markets to organizations to raise money with engraved brick laying.
The original installation of the pavers consisted of 2,502 bricks. The week of April 1 there was another installation consisting of 1,268 bricks. There has been a total of 3,770 bricks installed, leaving another 1,230 bricks left to be engraved and installed.
