Homecoming week adds new events

This year’s homecoming events at UW-Oshkosh will include two new events, and the usual homecoming parade has been replaced.

According to Reeve Union Board Special Events Chair Danielle Vanschyndel, the parade was a lot of effort with little enjoyment.

“The parade took a lot of time and effort, and I don’t think the community appreciated it enough,” Vanschyndel said. “It really is for the community to come out and watch it, but not enough people would come to it. It could have been because of the location, but it just wasn’t getting a big enough turnout.”

The Student Organization Festival is one of the new activities that will be replacing the parade. It will be held on Oct. 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Tent City, which is next to Titan Stadium. 

“The Student Organization Festival will take the place of the parade, which will be easier for the organizations themselves,” Vanschyndel said. “Since there is no parade, they won’t have to make floats or worry about finding marching units. Instead we supply them with a little tent, a table and chairs, and we ask them to put on some kind of activity or game at their tent to go along with the theme of homecoming, represent the organization, and (is) appropriate for all ages. We want the community to come in and participate as well. A lot of them are going to be carnival games, so it will basically be like a mini-carnival.”

Vanschyndel also said that there are a lot of organizations signed up to participate in the Student Organization Festival that have never participated in homecoming before.

Another new event is the Campus Food Sculpture event. This event was held on Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Reeve Ballroom.

Teams had a maximum of 10 people, and each team had two hours to make a sc ulpture relating to their theme using only non-perishable food items.

Vanschyndel said that the Campus Food Sculpture event allowed smaller organizations to get involved, which she said will make competition more fair.

“This year we decided to spice things up and make it more fun,” Vanschyndel said. “It didn’t used to really be fair because the Greeks (fraternities and sororities) go around to neighborhoods and collect can goods, but when you live in a (residence) hall it is a little bit harder. The good thing about the competition is that its not getting judged on the quantity, it is getting judged on the sculpture that you make. This gives the smaller organizations on campus a chance to participate and enjoy homecoming as well.”

Vanschyndel said that the canned food is all donated to a local charity, so the more canned food that organizations collect, the better.

Titan Gladiators will also take place on Saturday. The event will be at 11:30 a.m. next to Titan Stadium.

According to Stan Sweeney, assistant director for the Student Leadership and Involvement Center, teams who signed up had to go through a tryout process. The tryouts took place on Monday and Tuesday.

“There is a series of four trials that they are doing for tryouts,” Sweeney said. “I think there are nine teams this year, which will be narrowed down to four after tryouts. The teams will be competing on Saturday against a UW-Oshkosh celebrity team, which consists of staff and faculty members.”

Titan Gladiators is an individual competition, which means it’s open to all students on campus. Students don’t have to be involved in an organization or live in a residence hall to sign up.

All groups who enter the homecoming competition are placed into one of three groups.

The Greek Division is made up of fraternities and sororities, the Hall Division is made up of all of the residence halls, and the Independent Division is made up of recognized clubs and organizations.

Sophomore Kendra Rudolph, a member of Gamma Phi Beta, looks forward to her first year participating in events as a sorority member.

“I think all of the togetherness is my favorite part,” Rudolph said. “Everyone coming together to do the activities is really cool. We do house decorations, lip sync, the food sculpture, spoons tournament and Yell Like Hell. We try to get involved with an event that’s going on every day.”
 

7 comments

Your name

Thu Oct 22 2009 21:38

The thing with all of these accusations. Does no one realize all of the planning and thought behind homecoming at UWO? How there is a committee who plans a year in a advance to ensure that ALL students will be able to participate and have a great time? Within the homecoming packet is an explanation of rules and everything you'd need to know about participating. I myself participated and am glad that RUB has made homecoming into CATEGORIES: Greek, Halls and Organizations, this way EVERYONE has a chance to participate and have a great time. No one is trying to prevent students from having a great time! Students are allowed to get involved however they choose, and this is what makes UWO a WELL-ROUNDED campus. And I am guessing that no one that commented negatively on the organization fair actually went, and witnessed how much fun was had by all of the Halls/Greeks/ and other Organizations who participated, as well as all the community who attended? If you did, you would NOT be complaining about changes made to amp up participation within homecoming week.

Your name

Wed Oct 21 2009 13:51

The egg toss that you were referring to was for Titan Gladiator try outs a complete separate event from the competition throughout the week and also remember there are divisions for homecoming. The only event that wasn't in divisions was the Spoons Tournament and Greeks won! Maybe learn a little bit more on the background of homecoming before you start accusing someone else of false accusations. Greeks compete against greeks, halls compete against halls, and organizations compete against organizations. Learn more about UWO before making false accusations and calling this a "weak" effort. If it was a weak effort why was it such a good turn out?

MJ

Tue Oct 20 2009 23:57

I think Homecoming turned out great!!!! Also the change was made to make more opportunities for other students who aren't necessarily interested in joining a fraternity/sorority, which I think is a great idea. It makes more sense especially since our non-traditional student population is increasing and I think this gives them a great opportunity to become involved in more on campus activity. As for the parade you must have no idea how much hassle it is for the people involved to put something together that people don't appreciate and can't follow simple instructions such as showing up on time. Also the Greeks are in a separate category from residence halls and independents and it almost seems as if you are a little worried for some competition. As for floating through college for 4.5 years, I think I am enjoying the high so far. I understand change is hard for some people, but its a part of life! As for VanSchyndel I think she is taking some big risks and will someday be appreciated for the change that has occurred.

Flounder

Mon Oct 19 2009 10:46

And you really did have egg toss? Or is that egg-relay? Were those staged pictures, everyone wearing UWO gear? Wow, this is pathetic!

Flounder

Mon Oct 19 2009 10:44

Souns like Vanshmegma is making excuses for the residence halls. Why take down the greeks because the residence halls suck? Whey not help the residence halls get better, instead of making the competition suckier? Face it, if you're not greek at UWO, you're just floating through college for 4.5 to 5 years. No float? What is homecoming without a float? I know, let's play pin the tail on the donkey and have egg toss, that's fun and competitive! Weak effort UWO, weak.

Loyal Greek Alum

Sat Oct 17 2009 09:15

“This year we decided to spice things up and make it more fun,” Vanschyndel said. “It didn’t used to really be fair because the Greeks (fraternities and sororities) go around to neighborhoods and collect can goods, but when you live in a (residence) hall it is a little bit harder. The good thing about the competition is that its not getting judged on the quantity, it is getting judged on the sculpture that you make. This gives the smaller organizations on campus a chance to participate and enjoy homecoming as well.”

This paragraph says it all. Somewhere, somehow, Greeks might have some fun and enliven the campus. So the university will do whatever it can to prevent that. Apparently it's part of the policy of 'indifference' (direct quote from a former Greek Adviser in the Dean of Students' Office) toward fraternities and sororities. OK. Fine. Enjoy your paradeless, PC bike ride and carnival games at the org tents. We Greek alumni will simply have fun without you. You are the weakest link. Goodbye Homecoming. Goodbye financial contributions.

Chancellor Wells, please remember this flop and bone-headed decision when it comes time to do performance evals of your staff.

Blutarski

Thu Oct 15 2009 13:37

No parade?? I think Dean Wormer must be behind this....

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out