The NIU Residence Hall Association is working to improve involvement in this year’s Homecoming activities by on-campus students.

A President Gail Colbert said the association will participate in the annual “Yell Like Hell” and banner contests during Homecoming Week.

The RHA, a conglomeration of individual hall councils, will enter a 40-member team for the two events, but each hall council will decide which of the other Homecoming activities to take part in, Colbert said.

In addition to the “Yell Like Hell” and banner contests, this year’s Homecoming activities will include a talent show, a parade, a “Paint the Town” contest, a surprise event, and the crowning of the Homecoming king and queen.

The Homecoming activities also will include sporting events such as volleyball and canoe races. Softball was dropped from the list of activities this year, igniting a controversy which resulted in the intraFraternity Council’s refusal to participate in the parade.

Because a large number of NIU students live in the residence halls, the RHA is attempting to get more of these students involved with the activities.

Colbert said participants in the events are divided into categories of “greek” and “other” for competitive events. “We are classified as ‘other’ and will not be competing with the greeks,” she said.

Although Homecoming in previous years was often seen as a greek event with low participation by non-greeks, Colbert said that is not the case with this year’s Homecoming. “We are encouraged by the number of students who have already signed up for the activities” she said.

Colbert said she hopes residents also will gain a better understanding of the RHA by becoming more involved with their hall councils. The purpose of the RHA is to coordinate campus-wide programs for students, as well as helping to run the halls on a daily basis.

Each floor elects a president and a vice-president, who attend weekly meetings of their hall council. The council, in turn, elects a president and vice-president to represent the entire hall at meetings of the RHA.

Although information from these meetings is supposed to trickle back down to the individual floors, Colbert said most residents “have no idea what we’re about.”

“We are encouraged by the number of students who have already signed up for the activities.”

Gail Colbert, RHA president