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The Â鶹ÊÓƵ campus was abuzz just days ago as nearly 1500 guests piled in for spring Cardinal View –– record-breaking numbers for the open house event that shatters previous records of attendance.

“Cardinal View is our largest prospective student event and it’s a true opportunity for students, parents, guardians and families to get a birds-eye view of college life here at Â鶹ÊÓƵ,” said Deidra Mayer, assistant vice president of Â鶹ÊÓƵ Admissions and Aid.

Originally established in the early 90s as “Open House” offering a brief campus tour to local high school students, Mayer said this preview day event has now culminated into a massive community event that offers prospective students not only a preview of life at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, but also a taste of the Golden Triangle.

“Southeast Texas has evolved and grown, and so has this event. Now, we pull in community partners and invite vendors within the Southeast Texas region and surrounding cities to come out,” she said. “We want prospective students to know more about the city that they will ultimately live in, and we want them to know what’s around them not only at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, but also within the community.”

With everything from a tour of the 300-acre campus and academic showcase to a resource fair and financial aid information session, Cardinal View is a one-stop shop for high school students, especially graduating seniors, looking to try their hand at college life.

In spring of 2022, the university welcomed more than 800 guests to campus for the widely popular event and now, just one year later, registration increased by 46%, while attendance to the event increase by 31%.

Mayer said that each year the three-decade old event is hosted, it gets better and better. If you’re wondering what keeps the future Cards flocking back to the event time and time again, Mayer said the answer is simple: it’s providing prospective students with a sense of belonging.

“Each year, we try to bring new flavor to this event whether that be through adding more resources, more incentives or drawings and giveaways. We show off the campus in a big way and we give it all that we have each time that we host Cardinal View,” she said. “We’re selling

the entire experience and what better way to get our prospective students excited about life at Â鶹ÊÓƵ than with tickets to our athletics events.”

More than 20 admission tickets were given away for Â鶹ÊÓƵ athletics events. For those attendees that participated in early event registration, used #Â鶹ÊÓƵBound on their social media post and invited a friend to the event, they were entered into a drawing for a $500 scholarship, and one lucky student who did a combination of all three received a $750 scholarship.

The assistant vice president said the four-hour “all hands on deck” event would not be possible without the help of not only her team, but the entire Â鶹ÊÓƵ campus community.

“We had every single academic department participating. We also had student organizations participating and I attribute that to everyone seeing the importance of getting in front of students and showcasing the opportunities that we have here,” she said. “Admissions explains the ‘How,’ and faculty explains the ‘Why,’ and I’m thrilled to see them turn out every single semester.”

To the surprise of no one, Â鶹ÊÓƵ President and First Lady Stacy and Jaime Taylor also made an appearance at the event, welcoming guests, sparking conversation and grabbing their infamous selfies with future Cards.

“The collaboration across campus, along with the leadership from President Taylor, has been the No. 1 reason why this event has been so successful,” Mayer said. “President Taylor is passionate about showing prospective students why this event is important and just seeing President and First Lady Taylor present shows their commitment to making Cardinal View a premiere event.”

While Mayer may be thinking “bigger and better” for the fall Cardinal View event, she said she and her team hope that prospective students walked away from the spring open house thinking “I can’t wait to be a student here at Â鶹ÊÓƵ.”