If you can think back to those high school days (far away, I know) I’m sure that homecoming was something far more exciting and incredible than it is here at Millikin. There were different outfits dedicated to each day of the week. There were pep rallies and decoration competitions between graduating classes. Everyone was wearing school décor and ‘repping’ the mascot proudly. On the final day, there was a town-wide parade of the entire school. There was the game on Friday, and then finally, the dance on Saturday. The whole school participated.

Yet, here it’s nothing like that.

We don’t have every class in a single building, so decoration competitions are thrown out. We don’t have a marching band, so there couldn’t be a parade. And, not to mention, we don’t really even have a mascot! Big Blue? What is that, some amorphous blob?

Nevertheless, there are some activities that do occur during homecoming week. There’s a talent show, oftentimes a magician or hypnotist, the homecoming game, and yes, even a dance. But why is it that the students here tend not to participate in the activities that we do have?

First of all, until this year we have had a serious problem with school spirit. Enthusiasm at the Big Blue has increased dramatically with the new football field. However, participation is still a problem. Not really having a mascot leaves us with nothing to rally around. And with clothing being so expensive at the bookstore, many people (myself included) don’t have much Millikin apparel.

Secondly, students would rather hang out in their dorm or do homework than attend events. I myself am guilty of that. However, having recently joined a sorority, I have realized the massive impact that Greek life has on homecoming events. I attended the first game of the season with some of my sisters and noticed that the spirit section was thoroughly packed with members from various Greek societies. Since Greek life focuses on supporting everyone on campus, it is only natural that these events are attended.

Third, the dance (which people would still love!) isn’t very well publicized or glamorized. I have yet to attend, in my three years here, simply because very few people do. It seems like it’s not that big of a deal. When people do attend, they don’t ask a date, they don’t spend hours getting ready, they don’t go out to eat, and then have a blast at the dance. No, that’s high school. If it was made more formal and exciting, it could easily draw in a larger crowd.

One thing that we need to remember is that in order to draw in larger crowds, we need to rely on an important factor: anticipation. When events are advertised long up to the event and the word is that everyone will be there, there will be a chance to dress up, and it will be awesome? There’s anticipation. People get excited because they know it has the chance to be awesome and because they can see everyone else getting excited too.

Basically, in order to get people to attend, more people have to take a chance on it and attend themselves. People aren’t typically motivated individualistically. Furthermore, we need to focus on an idea for homecoming. Create a challenge that people can participate in, especially if it is through social media. And overall, just regain that school spirit we’ve been missing. Unfortunately the ideas of an actual mascot or marching band are too far off to even consider those as being an option, although they would certainly help.

So at this point in time, it’s up to us. It’s up to us to claim our campus. Remember, we chose this school for a reason. Not just for scholarships or for the academics, but also for the social aspects. It’s time for us to step up and own homecoming. It’s put on for us; the least we can do is attend.