Homecoming is happening, and this year, it is bigger than ever.
Homecoming week will be Oct. 25 through Nov. 2 and is hosting events ranging from film screenings to tailgates. This year’s theme is “Adventure Awaits.” Student organizations involved in Homecoming choose a theme for their individual organizations and tie it in to the Homecoming theme.
Megan Hornbeek Allen, director of alumni engagement, said she wanted to make alumni more involved in the Homecoming process.
“One of the things that was very important to folks was revitalizing the alumni aspect of Homecoming,” Hornbeek Allen said. “We have a really vibrant student culture with Homecoming, but the alumni side has not been as highlighted as it could be.”
Hornbeek Allen said that to better involve alumni and students, Homecoming includes more diverse events.
“I’m hoping that we would have enough variety that folks might be able to look at these events and find at least one that they said ‘oh, that really looks interesting to me and I want to go back,’” she said.
This year, four Greek chapters are participating, including Phi Mu, Gamma Phi Beta, Alpha Chi Omega, and Lambda Chi Alpha. Other participating student organizations include the Black Student Association, FEM (the female empowerment club), the Native American Society, the Hispanic Student Association, Miracle Marathon, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Wesley Center. Some organizations are participating for the first time.
The organizations compete in events like Structure Build, Banner and LipSync, in which they build a structure, paint a banner and perform an original lipsynced production based on the organization’s theme.
Each student organization involved submits a nominee for Homecoming royalty. The winners of Homecoming King and Queen will be announced during Lip Sync on Nov. 1.
Organizations also get points for attending events throughout the week like OCU Cares OK Kids Korral, a community service event. At the end of Homecoming, the organization with the most points will be awarded the Spirit Award.
Trae Trousdale, mass communications/political science junior and Stars on the Plaza coordinator, said the big event for homecoming this year is the Stars on the Plaza.
“It’s a community engagement opportunity during homecoming,” Trousdale said. “It’s not reflective of any points within the homecoming system, so it’s just a time to really come together as the OCU community with our law school, our graduate students and our undergraduate students and just go out and enjoy Oklahoma City.”
Trousdale said they are anticipating about 300-500 students and alumni. Trousdale also said most of the businesses in the plaza district will be offering deals and discounts.
“We’ve got discounts from almost every single restaurant in the plaza district,” he said. “Lyric Theatre will be adding a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show on the same night as Stars on the Plaza. Those tickets are typically $60, for our students that night they are going to be $20, for our alumni they are going to be $30.”
Trousdale said he wants to make Stars on the Plaza a new tradition for homecoming.
“This is the first year that we are doing it as the second annual, so I think from here on out, it’s just continuing to grow the event, continuing to make it a little bit easier and continuing to deliver a great experience to our entire student body,” he said.
Contributing: Editor-in-Chief Emily Wollenberg
Leave a Reply