Students take charge in planning Homecoming

As the leaves begin to turn and fall sets in, nearly naked students, parade floats and alumni appear on campus. Every year IU dedicates an entire week to Homecoming, and every year the events go off without a hitch.

But behind the events, piecing together the parts of homecoming, are students. These students dedicate their time to ensure every piece of the puzzle falls into place for IU’s 99th Homecoming. But planning Homecoming comes with a lot of pressure, senior Ryan Walts said.

Walts, vice president of special events for the IU Student Alumni Association, leads directors junior Molly Carroll, senior Alex Welling, junior Kara Brooner and sophomore Ashley Osting in planning Homecoming.

When planning events, Walts said, you have to think about what will make students get involved but also make alumni want to come all the way back to campus.

“Homecoming will still happen no matter what,” he said. “But it’s making it good and making people want to come back that’s important.”

And to be able to pull off events that will keep people wanting more, you have to be ready to dedicate 10 to 20 hours a week, Walts said.

However, dedicating time to Homecoming can make balancing other parts of life very difficult, Carroll said.

Along with making time for homecoming meetings two times a week, Carroll said, she also trains on her Little 500 team, has a job and, of course, takes classes for her business management degree through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
But Carroll said she does it because she gets to work with the IUSAA and IUAA and because of the end result.

“When we see the results of homecoming when everything is over we can say, ‘Wow, we did this for our school,’” she said.

Planning for the week-long event started well in advance, though, Welling said.
Because they started about six months in advance, Welling said it hasn’t been too stressful overall. At the beginning of the year, Brooner said, there is a retreat for all IUSAA directors. The retreat was great because it allowed the five Homecoming directors to sit down and get a good plan for the direction they wanted to go, she said.

To aid even more in planning, she said, records from previous years are available so the directors can model and improve events. For Brooner, being able to work off past events was a great asset because for her, she said, the hardest part of the job is living up to the pressure of the pervious years.

“Homecoming is a huge event for IU,” Brooner said. “So as a new director ensuring Homecoming week is better than last year is a lot.”

The directors all agreed Homecoming is a very important part of IU, and that’s why they want to be a part of it. Carroll said they promote Homecoming so much not just to get people excited for the game, but more importantly to get everyone into the spirit of IU.

The goal of creating an atmosphere on campus that will bring alumni back and get students involved is well worth the stress and time commitment, Walts said.

“It’s challenging but rewarding,” Brooner said. “As a director of Homecoming, it’s really nice to be able to give back to the students.”