By Sarah Metcalf
For months before the Homecoming schedule is announced, members of the Council for University Programs (CUP) put in countless hours to organize and plan for one week in October.
Now that Homecoming ’03 has come and gone, one has to wonder if the members of CUP, who put so much time and effort into organizing this event, are happy with the outcome.
The answer is a resounding “yes.”
“Overall, it was a great success,” said Tom Kneafsy, the president of CUP. “We’re very happy with the way it turned out. Months of hard work paid off, and all the events definitely exceeded our expectations.”
Nicole Martino, the Student Government Association’s Vice President for Student Services, was also pleased with the results. She said, however, she would have liked to see more students show up to the events.
“I think it was great overall. I would like to see more students participating next year, but I think that’ll come. The advertising this year was really good, so hopefully that’ll help,” Martino said.
Kneafsy said not only was there a record amount of participation by student groups, there was also a record amount of individual students not necessarily involved with activities in the Curry Student Center that also chose to join in the festivities.
“We had a lot of non-student center people at the parade and Court TV, which led to a record amount of voting for Homecoming King and Queen,” Kneafsy said. “While there’s always room for improvement next year, we are extremely happy with the results.”
Saturday was by far the most event filled day of Homecoming Week, with much of the student body either turning out for the parade, the carnival in Krentzman Quadrangle, the football game against University of Maine at Parsons Field or the performance of comedian Bill Maher from “Politically Incorrect” in Blackman Auditorium that night.
Kneafsy said he was also pleasantly surprised at the turnout for Midnight Madness and how well it fit into Homecoming Week.
“We don’t actually organize Midnight Madness,” Kneafsy said. “The Student Government Association and the Athletics Department actually run that, but they did a great job. I mean, getting that many people into Cabot Gymnasium at 10 o’clock on a Friday night was a great thing. We definitely hope that the tradition of Midnight Madness being a part of Homecoming Week continues.”
Although CUP is happy with the number of students at most of the events, Kneafsy confessed that the pep rally is something that did not get as big of a turnout as expected. There are plans to re-evaluate the location and timing of next year’s pep rally, and possibly change some things around to make it more convenient for students to attend and support all of their sports teams.
Martino, however, expressed disappointment at the float building turnout.
“Unfortunately, inclimate weather hindered the float building on Friday. I would like to see more students take part in that event next year,” she said.
To the credit of the student body, there was virtually no misconduct or need for disciplinary action at any of the events. Martino said there were no “glaring examples” of student misbehavior at any of the events.
“I think it was just an incredible week. Students kind of halted their busy lives for a week to celebrate Northeastern,” Kneafsy said.
“We also had a lot of alumni come back and help in the celebration. Homecoming is really kind of high school, but it’s great to bring such energy and a little bit of high school to the university for a week.”
Kneafsy also said that many student groups from the Curry Student Center deserve as much praise as CUP is receiving for a successful Homecoming.
“So many student groups rally behind Homecoming. Between the NU Cheerleaders, the Student Government Association, the Resident Student Association, The Northeastern News and so many more; it just takes so many groups besides CUP to make this whole thing a success.”
