As Homecoming 2011 gets underway, the Homecoming Committee is gearing up for a week full of promotional events and giveaways. On Sunday, North by Northwestern sat down with Homecoming Committee Co-Chair Camille Provencal-Dayle, a Weinberg senior, to talk about what the committee has in store for campus in the coming days.
North by Northwestern: What will set apart this year’s homecoming from past years?
Camille Provencal-Dayle: A lot of new events are going on this year. We have a lot of discounts at places going on around town and a lot of other events have been improved from last year—like this year we have an eight dollar all-you-can-eat buffet at Clarke’s, where last year we just had giveaways there—and we feel like we’re just catering more to students needs and likes than last year. We’re also really excited because we’re doing a lot of new events, like a pre-parade barbecue on Friday, which will have a lot of giveaways, a lot of cool games, and they’re just a good way to get the whole campus together. A lot of the people who have floats and banners will be there as well, so it’s a great way to interact with students who will be in the parade.
NBN: What role will Seth Meyers have at homecoming?
CPD: As grand marshal of the parade this year, [Seth Meyers] will be branching out a lot to students, which I think will be exciting, so we’re definitely going to be welcoming him with open arms. We’ll be really excited to see him on the float, and just to have him, and I think there are a lot of students who are really excited to see him. He’ll also be at the pep rally and announcing the homecoming king and queen. This year is also the 15th anniversary of when he graduated, so he’ll be taking part in those events later in the week.
NBN: How and when was Meyers selected to be grand marshal of the parade?
CPD: That’s something that the alumni association takes care of....They try every year to bring in new people, and we [the Homecoming Committee] give suggestions about who should be picked—we advocated heavily for him going back to the beginning of spring quarter, so we were really glad that we were able to acquire him, because he obviously has a really high profile.
NBN: Lots of students will be busy studying for midterms during homecoming week. How will all the homecoming events work around their packed schedules?
CPD: We really tried to take into account a lot of the students’ needs, especially as midterms are coming around….Wherever people would be studying or getting a bite to eat, we’ll be having events at those kinds of places, so we feel like we’re catering to the studying part of homecoming week more. We’re having a lot more small giveaways at different restaurants downtown, like Clarke’s and Chipotle, where we know students will be spending a lot of their time anyway. We do have a lot of big festivities too, but we also try to think of smaller minor things that might still make an impact on students—like coffee shops being open later—because we know people will be up late studying. Also there are other smaller things like Dance Marathon trivia, where if people are studying they can just quickly do a fun activity and just resume with what they were doing.
NBN: How did you get involved in the Homecoming Committee?
CPD: I’ve been on the Northwestern fencing team since my freshman year, and we got involved in some homecoming events like Paint the Town Purple, and it was a really fun experience. It made me get so pumped about Homecoming, to just be really united with the campus, and it made me want to get a lot more involved in Homecoming planning. So spring quarter of my sophomore year I applied to be the athletic chair on the Homecoming Committee, and the next year I applied to be committee co-chair. I always really loved it and was passionate about it….It’s just a great way of showing NU pride.