Weeks of welcome open ECC's fall semester

Elgin Community College is kicking off the fall 2007 semester with a variety of activities for new and returning students during fall Welcome Weeks. All events are free and open to the public and take place on the main campus, at 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

ECC faculty and staff will give refreshments and keepsakes to students attending their first weeks of classes from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays through Aug. 30 in the Student Resource Center hallway.

Refreshments will be served and keepsakes will be given to evening students in the SRC and Instruction Center hallways from 5:30 to 7 p.m. from Aug. 27-30.

Other activities during fall welcome weeks include:

•Balloon artist Holly Nagel, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday in the SRC hallway

•Airbrush tattoos, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, SRC hallway

•Popeye and Swee'Pea, a human-dog duo who performs tricks, noon to 1 p.m. Aug. 28, SRC Jobe Lounge

•From Russia With Love, a traveling group of Russian singers and dancers, noon to 1 p.m. Sept. 4, SRC Jobe Lounge

•Sports Day, a variety of sports activities, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 6, Spartan Lake

•Embrace -- "Diversity, Why is this Necessary?," a discussion, 2 p.m. Sept. 6, Room 126 of the Instruction Center

On Sept. 11, ECC will honor the memory of American lives lost Sept. 11, 2001, during a ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Peace Pole located outside the SRC's Renner Learning Resources Center.

Welcome activities also will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. and 6:30 to 9 p.m. at ECC's Fountain Square Campus, on Sept. 26 and 27.

ECC's Welcome Weeks celebration is sponsored by the Office of Student Life, College Programming Board and student government.

For more information, contact the Office of Student Life at (847) 214-7370 or visit the Web site, www.elgin.edu/studentlife.