Parents’ Weekend 2012 began today with a welcome address from Provost and Acting President John Etchemendy.

According to the Stanford Report, the University expects 3,800 family members to arrive on campus Friday and Saturday. Parents’ Weekend attendance has grown each of the last two years, setting and breaking records for family participation. Approximately 3,300 family members came to the Farm during the 2009-2010 academic year, while 3,500 made the trip last year.

Nearly half of all registrants last year were parents of upperclassmen, with almost equal representation across the sophomore, junior and senior classes, reflecting a shift in event advertising.

This year’s Parents’ Weekend will feature tours of campus facilities, as well as an excursion to the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, conversation series between administrators and parents and the popular “Back to School Classes for Parents” program.

Included among the 14 hour-long classes will be lectures entitled, “Emotional Health and Well-Being of Stanford Students,” “The Scientific Challenge of Understanding the Magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki, Japan Earthquake” and “Will Democracy Come to the Arab World?”

Check-in for Parents’ Weekend will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center.

-Kristian Davis Bailey