“I honestly did not know about Homecoming until about two days ago,” said Sloan Goldberg, a freshman studying marine biology. “They gave us drink koozies and a girl walked up to me and asked me to vote for her for Homecoming Queen.”
Homecoming week is a tradition to unite the student body and emphasize school spirit with events surrounding the chosen home sports game. One of the many difficulties in rallying a school like the University of Tampa is getting the message to the students about all of the opportunities to support their school.
Homecoming Week is from Oct. 23 to Oct. 26, with tailgates and parties that are free for students including raffles, giveaways and food. The week began on Wednesday night with the kickoff party in Vaughn Lobby, followed by Casino Night on Thursday in the same venue and a tailgate for the homecoming game on Friday night between North Walker Hall and Sykes College of Business. This year, Homecoming has expanded the program with a new event called Spartan Splash, a party being held for students Saturday morning at the UT pool from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Casino Night, one of the most popular Student Productions events on campus, has also been expanded to include more tables to avoid overcrowding in recent years. The opportunity to be crowned Homecoming King or Queen has also expanded with an additional spot added. In previous years, Court has traditionally held three candidates for both King and Queen, but new this year is an expansion to four candidates each.
Student Productions, the organization in charge of arranging these events, has worked on increasing their social media presence in addition to spreading the word around campus with posters and free giveaways, such as drink koozies with event information printed. Despite these efforts to expand the event and its marketing, many freshmen are unaware of any details about Homecoming Week at UT.
“We are really trying to push social media this year,” said Mariana Herrera, a senior government and world affairs major who is also the chair of the Homecoming Committee. “We’re doing Facebook, we’re doing Twitter, Instagram… everything. Since so many students complain they do not hear about things, this year we are going to make our marketing a lot more interactive.”
Students like Goldberg and Kristin Collins, another freshman who is studying biology, both met Student Productions representatives on campus and received free giveaways. However, while students are hearing about the events, they still remain in the dark about the details.
Collins thinks that one way to reach out to more freshmen is to go through programs that all freshmen must take like the Gateways/Pathways courses.
“I had homecomings in high school, but I feel like it is different here,” Collins said. “I really don’t know a lot about it. I think [Student Productions] could talk to our Gateways professors or do what Legacy Productions does and slip cards under our doors.”
Without a major football team at UT, some students feel a lack of school spirit on campus. However, the university still has several national title-holding teams including soccer, baseball and volleyball.
“It will definitely be interesting to see a Homecoming without a football team, but it still sounds like a lot of fun to go out and see UT pride,” Collins said.
Herrera has focused on broadening Homecoming in 2013 in efforts to meet student needs, and create a larger sense of pride in the UT community for the teams that have brought home national titles. In the end, her goal is to make a bigger impact on school spirit and include the entirety of the student body in every way she can.
“School spirit comes mostly from athletic support, and this is our opportunity to really throw it in there with them,” Herrera said. “Not only that, but to get involved with alumni, athletic marketing and all the other organizations that will be present at Homecoming.”