Focusing on the Redhawk experience, and not just the athletic tradition, this year’s Homecoming festivities have been planned in the hopes of bringing together the entire Seattle University community.
Beginning tomorrow, students, faculty, staff and alumni are invited to celebrate Seattle U and get ready for the men’s basketball game against Utah Valley University on Saturday. The events are open to everyone, with the promise of free food and free Seattle U swag.
“This year we wanted to expand homecoming to continue to be a celebration of our athletic tradition on campus, but also to incorporate other aspects of the student experience at Seattle U,” said Nayland Olsen, assistant director of student activities and chair of the on-campus Homecoming Subcommittee.
This year’s homecoming will bring attention to Seattle U’s artistic side, with a performance by the D1 Improv team, a Battle of the Bands competition featuring five student bands, and student art displays at various events.
But the athletic tradition will also continue with a tailgate, an “umbrella parade” and RedFest—a celebration at North Court where students can vote for homecoming royals, play on an inflatable jousting arena, make signs for the game and more.
Track freshmen pose on between events on Friday and show their support for Seattle University sports.
The homecoming committee has also partnered with Labor of Love to organize three service projects—two off campus and one on campus—for students to choose from on Saturday.
“We’ve really tried to engage the student body in their ideas of how to make homecoming bigger and better,” Olsen said. “We want it to be an important tradition, and we want it to be a growing tradition.”
Students who attend any of the homecoming events will receive a punch card. The card can be punched at each event to indicate that the student was there, and cards can be entered into a drawing at the basketball game.
Seattle University’s Homecoming basketball game will be held on February 5 through the 7.
“The more punches on your card, the more times your name goes into the drawing,” Olsen said. “[The prizes] are cooler than they’ve
than a hundred nominations that came in this year for the homecoming Court. The two Court winners will be announced during halftime at the game on Saturday.
Assistant Director of Housing and Residence Life Brian Hooks also worked on the Royals Committee, and said there were several factors that went into choosing the final twelve nominees.
“Whatever nominations came in, we took them at face value,” Hooks said. “We want to make sure it’s a representative court. It hopefully gets to the essence of our community.”
This is Hooks’ second year workingnon the homecoming committee. He said that although he believes that in the future, homecoming should be entirely student-run, he has enjoyed working toward that goal.
“I really enjoy trying to find ways for students to engage,” Hook said. “We’ve really been trying to push it to promote SU in its entirety, and trying to engage the entire community versus a specific population.”
Olsen said he hopes students take advantage of this opportunity to become more connected with the school and attend as many of the events as they can.
“Homecoming is what you make of it,” he said. “It can be a place where you make some cool memories and take some time to celebrate the things that make Seattle U special—whatever that is for you.”
Homecoming will kick off on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Center Hearth, where students can pick up a punch card and this year’s homecoming t-shirt.
