I wish I could say that last week’s homecoming festivities were something that was greatly anticipated, that our homecoming was the center of everyone’s attention and that CNU made a great show of our school spirit. But I’m not able to say any of these things. Well, rather than speculate about the student body’s school spirit, I’d like to focus on the lack of any meaningful ways to show our school spirit for Homecoming week.
Homecoming events on campus revolved around the Spirit of CNU competition more than anything else, with the reveal of the nominees on Monday, Oct. 16 and the announcement of the winner(s) on Saturday during the Homecoming game. I have only respect for the nominees and winners of this honor, but this wasn’t an engaging activity for the campus outside of certain cliques. More energy went into this event than any other part of homecoming week.
There was a promising event called “CNU’s Got Spirit” on Wednesday that had to be canceled, which was some kind of talent show… maybe. This event was included in monday’s campus announcements but had no information except for a picture with the date, time, and location included. The event was canceled without so much as a follow-up from OSI about what it was actually meant to be. For what it’s worth, it’s hard to be disappointed in something when we don’t know the full details.
Then there was Thursday’s “Fight the Night,” which was put on by the Campus Activities Board (or CAB) and not clearly part of the ‘homecoming’ festivities. The actual idea was pretty fun, with small teams competing in relay games on the Great Lawn, but it was set late enough in the night that you could hardly recognize anyone in the dark – making any kind of spectating impossible. This kind of activity would’ve been better set in the fieldhouse, with proper lighting and more like a pep rally with audience participation.
When the weekend finally came, much of the energy left over wasn’t put into anything for the student body, but instead, wholly dedicated to soliciting donations from the alumni. This left current students with a Tailgate and homecoming game, but nothing else put on by the school. Having gone out to both, I’ll say that the tailgate was a fun experience, but the culture present is alcoholic – something that you can’t really engage with if you’re under 21. Afterwards you have a homecoming game that absolutely no one I spoke to was even remotely interested in; instead, hundreds of students travel to the many off-campus parties going on at the same time as the game.
Those handful of events made for a poor homecoming week, with a consistent challenge of engaging the whole campus. CNU students go above and beyond in their involvement, so it’s actually pretty difficult to not engage them in any events throughout homecoming. A spirit week with themed days would’ve been an easy way to show school spirit for most people, and would cost next to nothing.
There’s also an absence of any dance/party function for the whole student body, which seems like a pretty obvious way to build anticipation for the weekend while also guaranteeing the kind of regulation that makes events accessible and fun for everyone. These are just some of the potential additions that could’ve been made to our homecoming.
The whole thing was pretty underwhelming, but it’s also unclear where the responsibility falls. This kind of planning is difficult, and on a large scale that requires the finer details to be worked out weeks in advance, it’s easy for things to go wrong – but we didn’t get that kind of failure. We had a failure in imagination, where we succeeded in only putting on some unimpressive events that didn’t really stand out and will probably be overshadowed by Halloween in a week. I’m really glad that student organizations stepped up to put on something in place of the lack of effort from the on-Campus activities, but we should all want a better effort from campus so that everyone can be included in the celebration.
