DeKALB — Students, faculty, staff and the DeKalb community are invited to the first ever NIU Homecoming Pep Rally from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Convocation Center to show their Huskie Pride and get pepped up for the weekend.

Meg Junk, coordinator of signature programs and events administration for the Division of Student Affairs, said this is the first year the university put together a Steering Committee to guide Homecoming in a collaborative direction. This event is one example of the events the committee helped pioneer, Junk said.

“We were really looking to start moving Homecoming in a direction that was not just [Campus Activity Board] or Greek life events during the day with alumni events on the weekend,” Junk said. “We wanted something that was a bit more unifying.”

Several organizations, such as Student Affairs, alumni groups, athletics and Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusioncame together and decided this event would be a great way to unify all different parts of campus and the community as well, Junk said.

Junk said at the event, the band will be performing, the cheerleaders will be leading cheers and the Silverettes, the NIU dance team, will be performing. Additionally, Football Head Coach Thomas Hammock and a few football players will be speaking, SA members will be speaking and the winners of the “Dec the Campus” event will also be announced. “We are hoping this can set the stage for the rest of the weekend and just gets people’s [spirits] up,” Junk said.

The event is not just for students. Faculty, staff and the community of DeKalb are welcome to attend the event, Junk said.

“We wanted this to be planned at more of an administrative level, in a way that can really bring together more than just the student population but that was also appealing faculty and staff,” Junk said.

This event aims to be a true communiversity event to also be a launching point for events for years to come, in hopes of really unifying NIU with the rest of the community as well, Junk said.