Student Affairs announces Homecoming changes

This spring, the Office of Student Affairs staff and the Homecoming Committee asked students to critique and suggest improvements to Homecoming through a survey sent out via email in early April and a town hall meeting on April 20.

Following the town hall meeting, Student Affairs members deliberated with the Homecoming co-directors to decide on a final structure.

"A lot of feedback that we got from both the survey and town hall meeting was from the Independents, who responded that they would like to have their own team," Bailey said. "So we said, ok, Independents you can compete by yourself and have your own team. Then that way, they still are able to experience homecoming in less Greek fashion whereas the Greeks are still able to have their Greek pairings…We looked for that compromise so that both sides would be able to be engaged on a greater level."

Although the Independents will now participate on their own, due to the unequal number of Greek chapters, one sorority will form a team without a fraternity pairing. In fall 2011, this sorority will be Alpha Gamma Delta.

This is not the first year that Independents have taken part in a team unto their own. Before the dissolution of Sigma Nu fraternity, the Independent team competed against Greek pairings. In constructing the Independent team, Student Affairs and the Homecoming Committee are looking to this former system.

"We’re looking back at that structure where we had two co-chairs for the team itself and they were the contact people for any of the Independents. And that worked out fairly well," Bailey said.

The Homecoming Committee and Student Affairs are currently in the process searching for potential Independent leaders.

Besides the structure, two other major changes will be introduced in the upcoming fall.

The first adjustment established that spirit stick cheers will now have specific judgment criteria. The five spirit stick criteria will include sportsmanship, originality, appropriate engagement in the event, intergroup cooperation and William Jewell community cheers, as opposed to Greek cheers.

"This will help to keep the focus of the spirit stick more Jewell-oriented. Before, [judgment criteria] was always vague. It was how the judges themselves saw spirit.

So now, we’re going to make it a little more structured," Bailey said.

Secondly, Homecoming Week will include a different number of events. Mabee Games, Campus Sing, Casino Night and Serve and Celebrate will all remain as Homecoming events. In addition, Fridays potentially will consist of additional activities, such as informal Quad Games during Jewell Time and a bonfire during Friday night festivities.

However, two events will be removed from the Homecoming Week lineup. The Powder Puff football game will be moved to Greek Week in the spring. Faculty Follies will also be hosted at different time in the year, although this time has not yet been established.

"We [hope to] ease the stress from the week. Sunday and Wednesday nights won’t have any events planned so people can have a little break during the week," Bailey said.

After Homecoming Week 2011, the new structure will be evaluated with the potential for further modifications and improvements.

Tara Moreland can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.