Academic Calendar
Looking for registration deadlines, spring break or when grades are due? Our academic calendar has all of the important events for this academic year.

Each fall, Elmira College brings the community together with its family-friendly Octagon Fair. Hosted by the Offices of Alumni Engagement and Campus Life, this year’s event will again take place during EC’s Family Weekend and Reunion events.
The Fair will run from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Saturday, October 17, and features creative games for children, craft booths, handmade items, performances, and food trucks. Admission is free, and community members, EC students and their families, faculty, staff, and alumni are all encouraged to attend. Visit the Elmira College Octagon Fair on Facebook to check out the 80 vendors attending this year’s event.
"Octagon Fair is one of the most beloved EC traditions. The fair has a rich Elmira history that spans 59 years. This event is a tremendous opportunity to welcome the greater Elmira community to our beautiful campus and engage with our students, their families, EC alumni, and EC employees,” said Sydney Stringham ’19, MSEd ’21, MS '23, Director of Alumni Engagement at EC. “Our alumni often share their fond memories from previous Octagon Fairs, so we are particularly excited to coordinate the event while many are back on campus for Reunion.”
Throughout the main campus area, attendees will find EC students from 20 clubs selling items and organizing activities, crafts, and games to raise money for their clubs. Local community vendors will sell their crafts, and food trucks will have tasty treats to eat.
This year there will be a few special events. Elmira College is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Tompkins Hall. There will be tours of the historic building at 9:30 a.m. (register) and 1:00 p.m. (register). Registration is required. Tompkins was the first standalone residence hall on the campus. It was built in 1928 and named after local philanthropist Sarah Wey Tompkins, an EC Board of Trustees member in the early 1900s.
The Band: RUKUS will perform from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. on the Campus Center Portico. The performance is made possible in part by the QuickARTS grant program administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and funded by the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes, Inc.

The EC Alumni Board will host fundraisers for alumni activities and award EC student clubs monetary prizes for the best presentations. Additionally, around noon, attendees will get to hear and see traditional bagpipe players lead a march of Reunion attendees in the traditional EC Parade of Classes with the Caledonian Highlanders Pipe & Drum Band.
Sports fans can also attend the EC Field Hockey game at 1:00 p.m. on the Campus Field, and the Women’s Volleyball game at 2:00 p.m., in Speidel Gymnasium. After Octagon Fair, there is a Men’s Soccer match at 4:00 p.m. on the Campus Field. During the game’s halftime, a special dedication ceremony will reveal new donor-sponsored names for the turf field and adjoining grandstands.
“We welcome everyone to come out to support our students and our community vendors. There is something for everyone at the fair!" added Stringham.
Click here to learn more and follow the Octagon Fair Facebook page for this year’s vendor spotlights.