As Homecoming swiftly approaches, those tasked with planning the many facets of the week-long celebration are working around the clock.
But this year, the Homecoming Committee aims to shake things up in order to increase student participation in competitive events.
“We’ve created basically a tier system, so that the Greek houses can still compete, like they always do, but this year we’ve added two other tiers,” said Mia Goodwin, adviser of the committee.
In the past, Homecoming has been known to draw significantly high numbers of Greek life participants in relation to those living in the dorms or off campus, but those on the committee said it is important for all students to be involved.
“Homecoming is for everyone. It’s for students, it’s for faculty and staff, it’s for alumni, it’s for friends of the university and community members,” Goodwin said. “In the past, we’ve really only had Greek houses compete. The thing is, it’s always been open, but I don’t think that was really expressed or marketed to everyone.”
While it’s unclear the exact reason why so many Greek life students get involved in relation to students who live either in the dorms or off campus, Goodwin said many have their own speculations.
“It creates a pride for the school. You want to have pride when you’re going to a university. It really encourages you to do better as a student,” said Dalton Poopathi, co-chair of the Homecoming Committee. “This week is kind of competitive in a sense and you’re going against clubs and committees and those clubs and committees are nowhere near the size as Greek life on campus. Greek life on campus is pretty competitive by nature.”
Whatever the reasoning behind the disparity, the committee agrees this is a problem and are working to change it with this year’snew strategies.
“We’re trying to get other parts of campus involved with Homecoming, because in past years it’s been really hard to get the dorm kids involved with it,” said Kael Berkwitt, the marketing and graphic design chair. “A lot of my job is just to get people out there and get them to recognize that there are a bunch of activities that they can participate in. At the end of the week, if I just notice that there’s been huge amounts of participation, then I’ll be super happy.”
The committee this year has worked together to come up with a system they believe will help fix this issue.
The first tier in this system is called the “Palouse Green Level” which is a team composed of 25 or more team members for Greek houses and other large groups. Teams in this tier are set to participate in all of the competitive events.
The second level is called the “Clearwater Level”. These are average sized groups with 15 to 24 members meant for sports teams or other organized groups that may not be as large as those in the Greek system.
These teams will not participate in all the events, but they do participate in most.
The smallest division is called the “Star Garnet Level” these are small groups of six to 14 members which may be just a group of students and their friends. Teams in this section only participate in half of the events.
This is the first year this tier system is being implemented, but the committee believes this is a step in the right direction.
With this tier system in place, some say students will be competing against teams similar in size to their own.
“There’s an award for every group. They’re all separated. They’re not all competing against each other.” Berkwitt said. “I hope [the student body] is super happy with it. I think it’s more fair across the board. There’s more possibility for smaller groups of people.”
However, getting a wide variety of students to participate in events is much easier said than done.
“We have encountered a lot of work and have been trying to see what will work and what might not work the best.” Jake Milleson, co-chair of the committee, said. “This will definitely be a learning year for the committee but it’s a step in the right direction, and we can be successful with persistence in years to come.”
Besides the tier system the Homecoming committee is extremely excited for the new theme and small changes to the events themselves.
This year’s theme is “As we were, as we are”, based off of the 1960 edition of the University of Idaho’s “Gem of the Mountains” yearbook collection.
Each team will be assigned a decade of University of Idaho history. In each decade is a significant development for the University of Idaho, such as the building of the Memorial Gymnasium in the 1920’s and the upcoming construction of the Idaho Central Credit Union Arena. From here each team will be competing in events with their decade as a guide.
Some of these events include a photo scavenger hunt, window painting, Yell Like Hell (where students will be meeting in the memorial gym to yell the women’s volley ball team to a win), a food drive, Most Vandalized Fan, Jingles (where students get on stage, sing, and perform skits), campus decorating, and of course the parade. There will also be a blood drive for the week of Homecoming.Students are encouraged to participate even if they are not competing. There are events like Serpentine, Bonfire, a firework show, Homecoming Royalty, and of course the football game against Southern Utah on Saturday Oct. 20.
A full list of the events, times, and locations will be posted on the committee’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram as well as handed out on fliers.
Brianna Finnegan can be reach at [email protected]