Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Homecoming Week 2016 events being organized by Mississippi State’s Student Association get underway at 7 p.m. Sunday [Oct. 23] with a religious service and musical performance at the university’s Chapel of Memories.

“Classic Maroon and White” is the theme of this year’s traditional fall semester “welcome back” for the 138-year-old land-grant institution’s graduates, former students, friends and supporters.

At the weekend evening chapel program, Regina Hyatt, MSU vice president for student affairs, will be featured speaker and the student Black Voices choir will perform.

“The Student Association is very excited about homecoming this year,” said sophomore T. Malik Ross, SA’s homecoming director. A sophomore business administration major from Cleveland, Ross said he, assistant director Phyliceia Brown and others “have been working hard to change the appearance of the week,” adding that the goal has been to have “the best one thus far.”

Also free and open to all, other SA-sponsored events include:

—Monday [the 24th], 8-9:30 a.m., “Pancakes with President Mark E. Keenum,” taking place on the Colvard Union Plaza;

—Tuesday [the 25th], a “surprise performance” scheduled for 1:45 p.m. on the Drill Field;

—Wednesday [the 26th], members from MTV’s “Wild’n Out” sketch comedy and improvisational series performing at 7 p.m. in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium;

—Thursday [the 27th], an SA-organized Halloween Carnival from 5-7 p.m. at the Junction.

—Friday [the 28th], campus National Pan-Hellenic Council-sponsored “stroll off” at 7 p.m. at Humphrey Coliseum. Following at the same location will be an 8:30 p.m. pep rally and Maroon Madness with the introduction of MSU’s 2016-17 men’s and women’s basketball team members. For more on Friday evening’s events, see www.hailstate.com/news/2016/10/6/mens-basketball-maroon-madness-returns-....

Homecoming concludes Saturday [the 29th] with the MSU-Samford University football game that kicks off at 2:30 p.m. at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. The homecoming queen and court, along with this year’s Mr. and Miss MSU, will be presented at halftime.

For more information on the Student Association, follow the SA on facebook.com/MSUStudentAssociation, twitter.com/MSU_SA and instagram.com/msu_sa.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.