Online registration for parents of next year's sophomores is now open at www.parent.umn.edu/events/parentswknd2009.html. (Parents of juniors and seniors who have not yet ordered may still register as well.) In addition to typical ordering information, you will be asked for your student's name and his or her birthdate. Please use your student's full name so that we can verify student status. If your student is not a sophomore, based on credits earned at the end of spring semester, we will be unable to fill your order. To qualify as the parent of a sophomore, your student will need to have at least 30 credits completed as of the end of spring semester 2009.

When our allotment of tickets is gone, we will be unable to fill any further orders for Gold Packages. If tickets remain in July, we will open registration for Gold Packages, including a football ticket, to parents of next year's freshmen.

Details about Parents Weekend: The weekend is scheduled for October 9-11, 2009, with a Big 10 football game on Saturday, October 10, against Purdue. The cost of a Parents Weekend Gold Package is $70, and each package includes one football ticket, discount coupons for the Bookstore and other campus venues, admission to parent workshops on Friday and Saturday and to most Sunday activities, and admission to the Victory Ice Cream Social following the football game. If you are interested in attending the weekend volleyball game, you may instead select the $74 Gold Package that includes all the above plus one volleyball ticket.

Information on workshops and other events can be found at www.parent.umn.edu/events/parentswknd2009sched.html.

Parents may also order a Parents Weekend Maroon Package. There is no limit to the number of Maroon Packages you can order, and parents of all students can order Maroon Packages now. The Maroon Package includes off-site game watching at Coffman Union, a coupon for snacks during the game, discount coupons for the Bookstore and other campus venues, admission to parent workshops on Friday and Saturday and to most Sunday activities, and admission to the Victory Ice Cream Social following the football game. Cost is $30 per person. Family members who do not want to watch the football game may participate in a Campus Art Crawl and visit galleries on campus.

We have a personal request as you place your order for Gold Packages. The order site actually will allow you to place orders for more than two Gold packages, and the site does not automatically sort out parents whose students are not sophomores. If, however, you do not qualify as parents of a sophomore or higher, or if you order more than two Gold Packages, we will need to cancel your order. The Parent Program has a very small staff, and it will take time for us to cancel those orders and contact you to explain why your order has been canceled. You will help us out immensely if you keep your order to just one or two Gold Packages. We regret that we must limit the number of Gold Packages to just two per family, but after much discussion and consideration of other options, this was deemed to be the most acceptable solution to a difficult situation.