Inside Furman -- Campaign Launch

While the final student walks across the Paladin Stadium stage during Commencement ’99, workers will be cleaning residence halls, spiffying up North Village and getting ready for what promises to be one of Furman’s busiest summers ever.

More than 7,000 campers, business people, high school students, educators and amateur athletes representing 66 groups are expected on campus during the nine-week period which ends in mid-August. To compare, the university hosted 7,000 people and 70 groups during the same period last year.

Largest participants in summer programs
Football camps	750
Southern Baptist Converence of the Deaf	500
Furman Cheerleading Camp	400
Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities	350
Furman Music Camp	315

New facilities such as North Village and the University Center are helping Furman attract more conventions and programs, which require upscale accommodations and meeting spaces.

Three of the six completed apartment unites at North Village will be available for those attending summer functions at Furman. The remaining apartments will be occupied by students.

While the U.S. Ambassadors Tour and the Robert Shaw Choral Institute helped focus national attention on Furman last summer, this year’s main attraction will be the Atlanta Falcons.

The Super Bowl runner-up Falcons, numbering about 150 coaches, players and office personnel, will arrive on campus July 29 and remain through August 19. The Falcons signed a one-year contract with Furman which includes an option to renew if the team decides to return in 2000.

The 85 players will be housed in one unit at North Village, with the coaches and staff housed in anotherunit. At some point during the Falcons’ stay, Paladin Stadium is expected to be the site of its first-ever professional football game, a controlled scrimmage between the Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

While the summer will mark the return of the Falcons, who trained at Furman from 1971-77, it will mark the final year on campus for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities.

The five-week program regularly attracts more than 350 students and instructors to campus each summer.

Furman has hosted the Governor’s School since it was created in 1981. The school, however, will be leaving this fall for its own facility, which is being constructed in downtown Greenville.

Marie Burgess, director of summer programs, is hoping to replace the Governor’s School with more academic-based groups while attracting additional arts and music-related camps. “These types of programs really help us recruit students,” she says.

This year will also mark the third year of Bridges to a Brighter Future, an enrichment program for disadvantaged secondary-school students who display academic potential. The goal of the program is to encourage rising sophomores, juniors and seniors to prepare for college by helping them reach their academic potential and by counseling them through the admissions process during their senior year in high school.

The program will reach full capacity this summer, with three classes totaling 75 students. The Bridges participants will be on campus June 20 to July 16.

Members of the Furman Reserve Officer Training Corps practice an amphibious assault landing on Furman lake. Soldiers from Fort Gordon, Ga., were on hand to help instruct the 50 Furman cadets during the April 22 exercise.