Homecoming is about the football game, sure, but university officials are working to make this a special week for everyone.
“[Homecomin g week] is about everything. I think it’s grown over the years, that it’s more of a celebration of Saint Xavier and our students and our alumni and all that we are,” said Jamie Manahan, the executive director of Alumni and Parent Relations.
Working with the theme See What Saint Xavier’s Got Brewing, Manahan collaborated with fellow department staff members Jon-Pierre Bradley and Jeanmarie Gainer, along with members of the Campus Life staff, to come up with events to make homecoming week a hit with everyone. One such event opened exclusively to the over-21 population.
“We’re going to ‘Unveil the Ale’ on Tuesday night, and we’ll unveil it here at Gilhooley’s. And right now we have well over 100 people that want to come sample and taste it,” said Manahan.
The libation that was introduced is called Cougar Ale, a special beer produced in coordination with Horse Thief Hollow, a brewery-restaurant located at 10426 S. Western Ave.
Neil Byers, the owner of Horse Thief Hollow who was instrumental in the brewing process, will also serve the Cougar Ale at his establishment, but “he’s going to not unveil his ale until Wednesday, so we get kind of first dibs at it,” said Manahan.
For the under- and over-21 crowds alike, the SX-Brew Bus visited the Chicago campus to distribute specialty coffee drinks beginning at 8:45 a.m. on Monday. The bus stopped at 10 locations on campus, including Lake Marion, the Shannon Center’s south entrance and the Visual Arts Center before finding its way to the Warde Academic Center.
A tastey treat can be expected. The featured drink is the Cougar Swirl, a white chocolate mocha coffee with a raspberry swirl, and it was developed by the on-campus Starbucks.
The new beer and specialty coffee are important to the homecoming week events, but these are not the only things going on at SXU these days.
“We’re brewing beer, we have specialty coffee and also what’s brewing is that we have a new logo and we have a new mascot, all these new things,” said Manahan.
Indeed, there is a new athletics website (sxucougars.com), renovations to the Rita Murphy Stump Library are now complete and the Center for Instructional Design and Academic Technology has been redesigned to include smart classrooms and a brand new media center.
There is plenty brewing at Saint Xavier. The ale and coffee are only the most pungent brews.
Tim Carroll
News Contributor
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