Homecoming Committee’s delay angers students

Samra Khawaja
Contributing Writer

VCU’s Homecoming Committee announced Tuesday rappers Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar would headline the annual Homecoming concert Feb. 3, but it wasn’t quite the timeline students were expecting.

After postponing the big announcement twice, the Homecoming Committee announced on Twitter that they would be announcing the performing artist “at the start of the semester.”

The committee tried to field questions from frustrated students on their Facebook page, but student director Avery Jones said the announcement wasn’t really delayed.

“We wanted to make the concert one of the best – better than last year,” Jones said. “It wasn’t neccesarily a delay in this process. There’s a lot of things that go into this process.”

According to Jones, some details had to be finalized before the committee was ready to make the announcement. She said the decision doesn’t just go through the Homecoming Committee, but through other university organizations as well.

For freshman Victoria Cox, the perceived delay isn’t making a positive first impression of the annual Homecoming tradition.

“I thought that everything would be on time and be pleasing to the students,” Cox said. “The committee doesn’t seem like they have everything together, and I think anger, along with fear that Homecoming will not live up to our expectations, is what is making everyone antsy.”

Cox said she tried to contact the Homecoming Committee several ways, including a phone call, but the committee’s responses weren’t up to her standards.

“It seems as if they take forever to respond,” Cox said. “When they do respond, it is not the least bit helpful.”

Like Cox, VCU junior Devon Beach has tried repeatedly to contact the committee, not only to figure out who the surprise performer is, but also to get general information like the cost of tickets.

“(I) would like to know how much the concerts going to be and who’s going and if it’s worth it,” Beach said.

At VCU, Homecoming includes a week of festivities. Some of the festivities are the crowning of a Homecoming king and queen, a Chill-N-Grill and a concert at the conclusion of Homecoming week.

According to the committee’s CollegiateLink webpage, the Homecoming Committee was established in 2003 to “focus on bringing students and alumni together during the basketball season.”

However, this year’s situation is appearing to bring students together to rally against the committee instead of bolstering school spirit.

“(The Homecoming Committee is) losing opportunities to hype this concert because they are waiting (until the) last minute,” Beach said before the announcement.

The mixed messages have led some frustrated students, like Cox, to take action and run for next year’s Homecoming Committee to prevent a similar situation from happening.

“I feel as if the committee was not well prepared,” Cox said. “They can handle the situation in a better manner than they are doing so right now.”

 

VCU Homecoming week will kick off Jan. 30 and run through Feb. 4. A complete list of Homecoming activities can be found on the Homecoming VCU Facebook page.

2 Comments

  1. Hello fellow journalist! I myself am a Mass communications student at VCU and after reading this article I would like to say that the information provided is unbalanced. As a journalist one knows to retrieve information from both parties. I am not a part of the Homecoming Committee, but I would like to address the problem with their delay. I am not taking up for them at all, but it is not solely their fault that the students are not satisfied with what has been going on. How about the students above do research before reporting false information. They need to dig deeper and point fingers at the faculty and staff of VCU. Yes the committee has to book people, but it is up to VCU to sign the contracts (which they have not been doing on time). If you all are trying to point fingers at someone confront VCU “Ram Nation” for the flakiness that has been going on.!!!!

  2. This article almost disgust me in the lack of appreciation students have of their PC organizations. As a member of another PC Organization I know all the stress and obstacles that were presented before the team as many have been placed on all the Programming Commission. If the students want a person to blame their anger needs to point towards Administration as they are the ones who hinder the possibilities of events such as Homecoming, Fall Block, STRUT, APB, etc. I feel that the author of this article did a very poor job in presenting all the facts and that if he wanted to post an article about the angers of the student body due to the Homecoming announcement they should have interviewed those apart of the committee and the advisors and administrators that govern the organization. To only interview one member of the committee and only have 2 sentences representing their point of view is offensive to all the students who work hard to throw the events that define VCU traditions such as Homecoming.

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