Communiversity Day Brings Valparaiso University and Community Together

To see a lot more photos from Communiversity Day, click here and here!

What do you get when you combine the greater community of Northwest Indiana along with faculty, staff and students from Valparaiso University? A whole lot of fun! And, an annual tradition appropriately named Communiversity Day. The all-day celebration included a whole slew of activities such as Day of Caring in the morning, in which over 500 students, faculty and staff members volunteered in various service projects in the community. A tailgate barbecue with carnival games along with a volleyball and football game took place as well, and with the historic unveiling of the lights at Brown Field, the community was excited to see the first Valparaiso University night football game.

"Community is very important to Valparaiso University. Both the close-knit campus community we have and also the very special relationship we have with Northwest Indiana as a whole," explained Dustin Wunderlich, Senior Director of Public Relations.

A summation of the connection between community and university happened in stylish fashion with Valparaiso University students, staff, and faculty along with community members decided to make a historic event...even more historic. Sophomore biology major, Chris Bradley, decided that a Guinness world-record attempt for the largest coordinated song and dance routine would be a fitting way for both the community and university to engage in a fun activity together. James Brown's "I Feel Good" was the tune of choice, and it was absolutely hilarious to see children, students, and adults sing and dance their way onto the football field. Watch the video of the world record attempt here!

"It's going to be a really enjoyable experience for the campus, for Northwest Indiana as a whole to come together, to have a shared experience and create some really great memories that they're going to carry with them for years to come," said Wunderlich. Whether or not the world record will be broken, it was a fun display of the strengthening relationship between university and community.

The football game commenced thereafter where Valpo was set to play St. Joseph's (Ind.) under the lights. Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas was honored at the beginning of the game to flip the coin, and a large crowd of Valparaiso University football fans packed the stands to leave standing room only. The festivities continued throughout the game as well with the unveiling of the new mascot at halftime, which follows in suit with valpo's recent new brand design introduced at the beginning of this current academic year.

"There's so much that [Valparaiso University and Northwest Indiana] can do to work together to ensure the success [of each other] so that Northwest Indiana is a great place to live and work," affirmed Wunderlich.

Attendees to Communiversity Day agreed that this was a great opportunity not only for the community and university campus but also just a great event in general.

"From what I can see so far, this is the one of the neatest events of the eight years that I've been attending Valpo football games," said Ted Soller, whose two sons have went though the Valpo football program and his youngest son is a senior this year.

"It's great to see all the people from the community and the university," commented Andi Jones, who works for Valparaiso University in their Institutional Advancement department.

"I think it's a great way to get the community together, to get people out to see a football game. We should do it every ball game," said Bill Cook.

Taylor Baldwin, a student at Valpo, explained, "I think it's a great way for the community and the school to get together and have an enjoyable event and sort of associate with each other so I think it's a great opportunity."

If you didn't come out this year, be sure to come out to next year's Communiversity Day and join in the excitement of university and community coming together! Watch all of the activities and excitement that took place below!

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