Monday marks NIU’s 118th Homecoming Week. That means it’s time to get dressed in your best suit and tie or dress, right? Wrong, at NIU, Homecoming means something more; it’s a time of Huskie spirit.
But, what is homecoming? Some freshmen at NIU may think it’s a time similar to their high school’s homecoming, often featuring a fancy dance alongside a football game.
Kayla Reese, a sophomore majoring in sports management, said that college homecoming not having a dance is not what surprised her, but the full weeks worth of events is what did.
“It’s different for me, because I’m not used to a full week of events. It’s normally just like the pep rally, which is the day, maybe before the dance,” Reese said.
Reese also believes that homecoming at college is much better than in high school.
For 118 years, Homecoming has been a storied part of our campus, with events such as the Homecoming Parade, beginning in 1899 in honor of the school’s founding, and the first homecoming football game dating back to 1903. Ultimately, NIU holds the reign in Illinois for having the longest-standing Homecoming.
Matt Streb, chief strategy officer at NIU, admitted that Homecoming in recent years has been lackluster due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the years, we got to a point where, for a variety of reasons, Homecoming became less of a focus. Several years ago, our students told us that they weren’t interested in doing a parade, and so we didn’t go forward with the parade after a while. There are several years where that was canceled,” Streb said. “Obviously, COVID hurt because that limited our, you know, ability to do certain things. But you know, about four or five years ago, we sat down at the president’s roundtable and said, ‘we have the longest Homecoming in the state of Illinois, and we felt like it had lost some of its luster.’”
Overall, NIU does a good job with Homecoming and is actively trying to bring in more events, like the Coi Leray concert in the Egyptian Theatre on Thursday. What makes Homecoming great is that it reflects all students’ interests – there is something for everyone, leaving no reason not to enjoy Homecoming .
Homecoming at NIU is meant to be a week long, encouraging commuters to pick a day they most want to be involved on campus.
“We try to make this a week-long event that, you know, there’s something going on campus starting on Monday of Homecoming Week just about every day, whether that’s, you know, starting off with the Homecoming Kickoff, or having the Recyclable Boat Races or the Esports event. You know, obviously, as we get further into the week, you get more and more events. But you know, certainly we want our commuter students to be involved,” Streb said.
Another way of having students be more engaged with Homecoming is making the parade go through campus itself. It is close to home and students would not have to make the trek to downtown DeKalb. While Streb argues keeping Homecoming in downtown DeKalb allows students to explore the area and foster a sense of community, the same could be done on campus.
A parade going through campus would allow students to feel more involved with it. For example, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Homecoming parade runs through campus. An effort like this would bolster student pride as students would be able to see the NIU marching band and parade floats stroll through campus.
We have the most storied Homecoming in the state of Illinois, and while we are not U of I or Northwestern, we should take pride in our Homecoming and actively engage with the campus. As a school in the corn fields of Illinois, we do the impossible – such as overcoming nationally-ranked Notre Dame in a football game. If students are more of an active part of Homecoming, the events will succeed in raising more spirit among the Huskie community.
