HoCo NoMo? This Year’s Lack of Homecoming Court
A staple of the homecoming festivities has traditionally been the Homecoming Court. It’s an opportunity for students to vote for their friends and compatriots to be crowned homecoming king or queen. So why wasn’t this tradition present at this year’s homecoming? I was able to interview Mia Harvey-Alekson, the Assistant Director for Student Engagement, to help get answers to this question.
Alex Zelaya: Why wasn’t there a Homecoming Court this year?
Mia Harvey-Alekson: It was simply not information passed down to us, and by the time we found it out we wanted to be more intentional with it than just throwing something together. If we had known prior, we would have put something together, there has been a lot of transition in the office and sometimes things get lost.
AZ: Can students expect Homecoming Court to make a comeback next year?
MHA: Absolutely, there are plans and an outline for what it’ll look like going forward. An addition is that we want the court representatives for clubs, orgs, and Greek life to have the ability to select a charity that proceeds will go towards. This will take the form of a penny war [fundraising competition where pennies add to a group’s total and any other currency subtracts]. The idea of this is to engage with the community more. We are also looking at how to advertise voting and get it more integrated with the community.
AZ: Will Homecoming look different in the coming years?
MHA: Yeah, I am working really closely with the committee that plans it and we really wanna put students and alumni at the forefront. I have ideas for how I want Greek life and clubs to be more ingrained in homecoming. When I was in college it had a very special place for me and I wanted alumni and students to be excited for Homecoming. Students should expect to start hearing things over the summer and into the fall, there will be a lot more outreach. It truly is such a special event to have everyone come back together; I got to talk to alumni who were celebrating their 50th anniversary. It’s important to me to bridge the gap between the first year students and those who are celebrating their anniversaries to come. It’s a wonderful team of people who put their heads together to help plan Homecoming, I hope students enjoy homecoming this year and are looking forward to more to come
AZ: Are there any plans to boost student and alumni engagement at Homecoming?
MHA: Absolutely, you can expect from my end more outreach to clubs’ orgs and Greek life, you can expect activities that are geared toward students and alumni. I’m hoping Homecoming Court is a gateway to get more involvement in Homecoming. I hope that people understand that we wanted to be intentional about homecoming court this year and didn’t just want to throw something together and that’s why we didn’t have a court this year. We plan to come back bigger and better than ever next year.
Overall, students can expect Homecoming Court to come back next year as well as new additions to the Homecoming experience as a whole.