The annual Homecoming Vandal Jingles competition will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the International Ballroom of the Bruce Pitman Center.
Vandal Jingles is a competition where teams work together to create any sort of skit, which could include performing stand-up comedy, lip-syncing, singing and more. Each team’s performance must be based around this year’s Homecoming theme — “Under the Big Top.”
Homecoming committee advisor Mia Goodwin said she expects the interpretation of the theme to be very broad, including anything from juggling to playing carnival games to taming lions or doing acrobatics.
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“Students will make it their own but also ‘Vandalize’ it,” Goodwin said. “It’s an opportunity for them to add in what they’ve experienced here and what they think homecoming should be.”
Goodwin said homecoming is designed to connect alumni with students and welcome past graduates home. She said the events leading up to Serpentine and the football game are there to “create an electric atmosphere” and to get everyone across campus involved.
Goodwin said one of the main goals for Vandal Jingles this year is to inform people that all Vandals, no matter what groups they belong to, can compete. She said there will be teams from fraternities, sororities, living groups and organizations and small student groups involved in “healthy competition” for points throughout the entire week.
The theme comes with the idea that carnivals unite people, Goodwin said. She said she hopes the theme will create an atmosphere where the entire Vandal community can come together, and alumni can remember what they were once a part of.
Much of Homecoming week originates from old traditions, she said, and Vandal Jingles, or a skit competition, has gone on for some time.
“It gets people out of their comfort zone,” Goodwin said. “Even though they’re competing, people pump each other up and unite.”
After teams compete for points all week, the overall winner is announced at the football game, giving the team members bragging rights, Goodwin said. She said the sorority Alpha Gamma Delta and the fraternity Alpha Kappa Lambda won the overall competition last year.
UI graduate student Brittnay Davis said she enjoys the Vandal Jingles event because it allows groups to take the theme and make it unique.
She said they can make the skit represent Vandals as a whole and also their own individual organizations, while also being funny. She said homecoming is her favorite week of the year because it is the one time when everyone is proud to be a Vandal and shows their Vandal spirit.
“It’s just a magical time,” Davis said.
Goodwin said homecoming celebrates students, faculty and staff— what they have accomplished in the past and what they are doing now. She said it’s great to have Vandals of all generations, including future Vandals, come together in support of the university.
“It reminds everyone that you’re a Vandal no matter what,” she said.
Jordan Willson can be reached at [email protected]