In just a few weeks the University of Alabama campus will be overflowing with school pride, adorned with crimson and white décor, savoring the spirit of competition and preparing to defeat Georgia State in a week, familiar to all, known as Homecoming.
Homecoming week is set to begin Sept. 30, and the Homecoming Committee has big plans for the campus this year.
“It is a big week where the whole entire campus comes together and celebrates Alabama,” Ashley Hays, executive director of the Homecoming Committee, said. “It’s not just about football.”
In an effort to make Homecoming week inclusive for everyone who attends the University, the SGA Homecoming Committee is making a concerted effort to reach out to small organizations and freshman students, Kendall Roden, the director of Campus Outreach for Homecoming, said.
“Homecoming is a really good opportunity to ease freshmen into what Alabama pride really looks like and what standing up for your school really looks like,” Roden said. “I think it is a really good opportunity to immerse freshmen in that kind of atmosphere and allow them to see upperclassmen and organizations really love Alabama.”
Roden said this year the committee is trying to involve students who are not a part of large organizations.
“We also want people that aren’t in organizations or people that are maybe in other organizations to be able to become more involved in Homecoming and feel like they are just as important, even though they might be a smaller division of the University,” Roden said.
The committee has reached out to the freshman housing communities and is in the process of speaking with several smaller organizations such as Creative Campus.
“One of the things we cherish in Creative Campus is reaching out to our school and community,” Kyerra Dexter, a senior majoring in telecommunication and film and Creative Campus intern, said. “It was refreshing to see the Homecoming team do the same with us. Their representative was energetic and passionate about linking up with Creative Campus to make Homecoming a success, and we look forward to helping.”
Roden and Hays both said they hope to see smaller organizations participating in the Homecoming events. They encouraged smaller organizations to get involved in the community events or put together a sports teams to participate in the evening events.
“I don’t know if people know that we have the small organization division,” Hays said. “The large organization and the small organization winner get to go on the field at halftime and accept the trophy in front of everyone…I would love to go on the football field during halftime in front of 100,000 people and get a trophy for how awesome my organization is.”
The committee has planned an outreach event at TCBY for Sept. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m. Roden said the event is designed to reach out to all students and organizations on campus, regardless of size. The organization with the highest attendance percentage in relation to the number of people in the organization will win all of the proceeds from that night.
The Homecoming theme this year, created by Hays, is “Leaving a Crimson Legacy.”
“I think that ties in really well with what we want to do at this university,” Roden said. “We want to leave our legacy, which is bringing the campus together and making it more of ‘Alabama.’”
