The lack of floats entered in NIU’s 80th Homecoming Parade has caused a great deal of controversy.

ob Arrington, vice president of programming for RHA, said, “The Residence Hall Association (RHA) has been the only entrant thus far, and it is doubtful that there will be any other.”

Although the InterFratenity Council confirmed Sept. 1 that greek organizations would not build floats this year, IFC President Tom Zur said the greek chapters would enter decorated cars in the parade instead.

obert Teinowitz, Homecoming chairman for Sigma Phi Epsilon, called for a “Greek boycott” of the Homecoming Parade because “this fine university does not realize what the impact of the Greek boycott would do to the 80th Homecoming.”

Kevin Dahill, IFC vice president for public relations, said, “We are not boycotting Homecoming at all.” However, Arrington said he has heard many rumors to the contrary.

e said, “I feel that there is a lot of creativity on Greek Row, and even with cars they have the potential to come up with something good.

“I think if they (greeks) put forth some effort on their car decorations, people will believe that they aren’t protesting and the greeks are truly participating in the spirit of Homecoming.”

Dahill said, “The key reasons for not building floats are the amount of time it takes, high costs and impact on grades for everyone involved.” He also said he hoped the success of the 80th Homecoming would not be affected by the lack of floats.

Teinowitz said he would stand behind the IFC’s decision to only decorate cars even though, in his opinion, the greeks should not participate in the parade.

“In my estimation, we should boycott because the greek organizations are not getting their just rewards,” Teinowitz said. He referred to the just rewards as “more recognition and support of Greek Row from the university as a whole.”

Arrington said the time element may have been another reason for the greek decision not to build floats.

A President William Folwer said information packets provided by the Campus Activity Board Homecoming Committee were sent out Sept. 5 and were due back by Sept. 14.

“Those dates only allowed five working days to prepare the applications, designs, yells, rosters and other information.”

Arrington said, “The information packet was a basic setup that should have come out last spring, or even early summer.”

No one from the Homecoming committee could be reached for comment.