Hoping to jumpstart a lagging sense of Husky pride during the Homecoming season, students and faculty have begun planning this fall’s festivities earlier than usual.

Set for October 10 through 16, this year’s Homecoming will look to reach “as many students, faculty, alumni and the whole university community as possible,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier.

“What we really want to do is ramp it up a notch,” Klotzbier said. “We have some strong traditions here at Northeastern surrounding Homecoming that we want to improve upon. We’re looking for what will get students jazzed up about Homecoming.”

Planners said the ultimate aim of provoking more Homecoming attendees would begin with getting more student groups involved in the planning process.

“We’ll be reaching out to different student groups,” said student Homecoming Committee Chair Tom Kneafsey. “People realize it can be a centerpiece tradition here at Northeastern.”

Klotzbier convened a committee three months ago comprised of himself, Athletics Director Dave O’Brien, Kneafsey and other students to discuss what potential attendees would want to get out of Homecoming.

The committee eventually developed a report with what Klotzbier called “a menu of ideas” for the Homecoming committee to consider when making their plans. From there, student leaders would be designated as chairmen with the task of organizing each individual program.

For instance, one student group member will be assigned as the athletics liaison, according to Kneafsey. He or she will be in charge of planning the pep rally, as well as communicating with the cheerleaders and the Doghouse cheering section to ensure their members are in attendance at each athletic event.

While Klotzbier said none of the ideas contained in the report were “set in stone,” a number of new events have already been added to the Homecoming agenda.

A major goal of the new events is to attract alumni back to campus for the Homecoming festivities.

An alumni networking event that will have a 21-plus age restriction has been proposed for Thursday night of Homecoming week in the Curry Student Center Ballroom.

Additionally, a tradition known as the “Mayor of Huntington Avenue,” a competition to crown the “class clown” of Northeastern, will be resurrected from its 20-year absence. Klotzbier said the competition would give alumni an event they could identify with from their time at Northeastern.

Parents of students are also being targeted by the planning. This year, Homecoming will be held the same weekend as Parents’ Weekend. Organizers are also considering bringing in a live Husky to serve as the event’s mascot.

Other proposed activities include an event that will be known as “A Taste of Huntington Avenue,” in which area restaurants offer different food samples all week; and a late night tailgate party that will be similar to President Freeland’s annual Mardi Gras breakfast.

At the Student Homecoming Committee’s first meeting Tuesday night, students from five different student groups discussed the proposed changes.

Though Kneafsey said the session was “informal,” the committee expressed their commitment to improve the process.

Representatives from the fraternity Beta Gamma Epsilon sent three members to make their presence known.

“We’re tying to get Greek life back into Homecoming,” said member Dan Quigley. “I think there’s a general consensus to get Greek life back into activities all across campus.”

Kneafsey said the reason organizers were beginning the process so early was the same as why they were looking to improve the week’s events – to increase awareness on campus.

“We’re starting earlier this year than we have in the past, but for the marketing campaign we’ll need to finalize everything by Summer II so we can start promoting the event at orientation and Welcome Week,” he said. “We want to get everyone thinking about Homecoming before it actually comes.”

Kneafsey also said the committee had no intentions of requesting more money from the Student Activities Fee, but didn’t rule out that the committee would want to request the funds.

No events have been finalized yet, but the committee will continue to meet and plan events for the rest of the summer, Kneafsey said.