Clark Atlanta celebrates its past while building its future at homecoming
Clark Atlanta University is using homecoming this week to celebrate its past while offering a glimpse of its future.
During his annual State of the University Address on Monday night, President George T. French Jr. highlighted changes across the campus, including a new women’s golf team, a Student Success Center and plans for additional facilities.
Speaking to students and alumni, French also emphasized the generations of Panthers who have helped shape the university.
“Homecoming brings our generations together,” he said. “We’re making history where we stand.”
French also discussed the university’s Cancer Research Center and offered more details about the new $16 million Student Success Center, which had its ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday and is designed to support students academically and with career planning.
He also provided updates on plans for a new dining area and renovations to historic Gaines Hall, which dates to 1869 and was the former Atlanta University’s first permanent building.
Alumni will also have the opportunity to purchase bricks from the demolished Bumstead and Ware residence halls, giving former students a tangible connection to the campus they remember.
“We’re not building for building’s sake,” French said. “We’re building environments for scholars to thrive.”
For returning alumni, those changes are especially noticeable during homecoming, when memories meet a campus that continues to evolve.
Gianni Spradley, a 2002 CAU graduate, returns in part to see just how much the campus has changed. She remembers using a hot plate as a student and wonders how different campus life must be for today’s Panthers.
“I’ll hit the yard just for nostalgia’s sake because it looks vastly different from when I was on campus in the late ’90s, early 2000s,” Spradley said.
For current students, homecoming is an opportunity to connect with the alumni who helped build CAU’s legacy.
Isaiah Ford-Patterson, a sophomore and newly inaugurated senator-at-large for Clark Atlanta, described homecoming as “Black heaven.”
“You can just look around and see everybody that’s successful … all having a good time and celebrating in one place,” Ford-Patterson said.
Fellow sophomore Shayne Morgan Middleton said homecoming is also an opportunity to celebrate school pride and build relationships with alumni.
“(Homecoming means) to show off your school, to show who you are as a student, and sort of have that community, that network,” she said.
Clark Atlanta kicked off its homecoming celebrations Sunday with a 5K race. During the inauguration of the Student Government Association on Monday, newly elected student leaders were officially installed in their positions for the school year.
The week’s remaining festivities include the Homecoming Coronation Ball for Mister and Miss Clark Atlanta University and the Royal Court, fashion and step shows, a concert featuring Yung Miami, a pep rally and a parade.
The celebration culminates Saturday when the CAU Panthers face the Allen University Yellow Jackets in the homecoming football game.
During Monday’s gathering, a panel of alumni also reflected on their experiences at Clark Atlanta and encouraged fellow graduates to return to campus, celebrate and support the university.
Several described homecoming as more than a party. As they grew older, they said, the celebration began to feel more like a family reunion and a chance to reconnect with the institution they credited with instilling resilience, determination, transformation and a sense of empowerment.
That sense of connection extends beyond the panelists.
For Anthony White, a 1999 CAU graduate and member of the Mass Media Arts Alumni Society, that connection between generations is what keeps the university’s traditions alive.
“The legacy is still being created,” he said.