As unification continues to push forward, Johnson and Lyndon students are being given the opportunity to celebrate becoming Northern Vermont University. On Nov. 1, an event will be held in the Twilight Theatre at 11:30 a.m. for the LSC campus, then in Bentley 207 at 4 p.m. for the JSC campus.

Melissa Weinstein, web and communications manager at JSC, notes the upcoming event will acknowledge the considerable work already accomplished towards unification. “We, as two institutions right now, are still doing a lot of work to come together as one,” she said. “So the celebration is an opportunity to just take a minute out of the business of all of this and just kind of celebrate all that we’ve accomplished so far.”

The celebration will include refreshments, free NVU t-shirts and stickers, and other NVU branded merchandise for sale by the bookstore. This event will also feature the premiere of NVU’s promotional video that Weinstein said will be used in a myriad of ways. “We’ll break it down and turn it into a TV commercial, we’ll share it on social media and we’ll show it at open houses,” she said.

President Elaine Collins will be speaking at both campuses alongside student representatives.

“Ideally what it will do is it will give both of our communities a chance to take a minute to feel excited about this,” said Weinstein. “We know that change is hard and some people feel very attached to their campus, and that a new name can cause some anxiety.”

She hopes that students take this opportunity to realize how beneficial the unification is on both sides, such as LSC students having access to JSC professors and vice versa, and students having the ability to shuttle to both campuses. “This celebration will be sort of a chance to think about those things and feel some excitement and feel some pride,” she said.

Johnson has invited community members, board of trustees members and Lamoille County legislators to join students at the celebration. “It would be great if 200 people showed up for this,” Weinstein said. “I mean, it’s at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday so not everybody will be able to come from far and wide, but we hope to see that many people.”