by Aaron Butts
This year Activities Management and Programming (AMP), who is annually tasked with organizing the homecoming, is shaking things up in a very big way. For the first time at Capital, there will not be a homecoming dance.
“We are getting rid of the homecoming dance,” AMP Executive Director Meg Gates said. “We are the only school that does a homecoming dance. I thought it was kind of high school.”
But the fact that it seemed childish wasn’t the only reason they had for wanting to move venues. In past years, Capital has held its dance at venues downtown. These events eventually always led to extreme consumption of alcohol and underage drinking, along with safety issues that would arise throughout the night. Last year, Capital decided to have the dance on campus in a tent in front of the conservatory.
“People weren’t into it last year,” Director of Administration Alyssa Bass said. “There wasn’t high turnout. We didn’t have the option of doing it off campus anymore.”
So this year, instead of boogying down at a local nightclub, Capital students will be bowling. “We have a bowling alley rented out for the entire evening,” Gates said. “There will be karaoke and a cash bar. People can dance if they want to.”
AMP came to the idea after weighing all their options and finally coming to the conclusion that they wanted to still have fun.
“It was hard to find a location that was safe,” Gates said.
She also explained that to come to the decision, they waited until all of AMP was back from summer to start planning.
“We didn’t start serious planning until we got here,” Gates said. “We wanted to work as a group to make sure that everyone is on the same page. For event planning we open up our meetings and let people throw out ideas.”
Bowling is just the conclusion of festivities, capping off a week of other events that are taking place. The theme of the week is “The Great Capsby,” a joke on the recent film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby.” The theme is based on the roaring twenties, the period in which the novel is set.
Monday, AMP held swing lessons as the first event for homecoming week. Tuesday they rented out a theatre at the Drexel for a showing of the film, “The Great Gatsby,” which was just released earlier this year. Last night they hosted illusionist Michael Kent, whom had previously performed here at Capital.
Tonight there will be a bonfire where Capital’s president, Denvy Bowman, will present the names of the top ten final contestants for the Capital homecoming court; however, this year, there will be a few changes to the court.
As many returning students can remember, last year a tremendous controversy erupted on campus after Dan Mollett was elected as the homecoming queen. Numerous opinions were expressed ranging from opinions on gender roles to the irrelevancy of a king and queen popularity contest. Regardless of the opinions shared between undergraduates, the administration may have been more concerned with the opinions of alumni.
To avoid further threat of controversy, a decision was made to change things up this year.
“They will not be called ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ this year,” Gates said. Rather, they will be referred to simply as ‘Royalty’ to avoid attributing assumed gender roles to the specific titles. According to Gates, there are other reasons to be taken into account.
“We are changing it, not entirely because of a male winning queen last year. It’s just one extraordinary male, and one extraordinary female.”
Hoping to alleviate future controversy, Capital and AMP are hoping for a very successful homecoming where at halftime of the football game against Ohio Northern, where the distinguished male and female royalty of Capital will be crowned.
abutts@capital.edu
