Collegiate Times

Last week Virginia Tech celebrated its annual Homecoming week with a wide variety of festivities ranging from the B.B. King concert and the Celebration of Diversity, to the annual Pep Rally and the Dr. Zenobia Hikes Stepshow.

Squires Student Center was decked out in Hokie colors with free give-aways of pompoms, miniature footballs, face paint and beads. Everywhere you went on campus, you saw signs for the Homecoming candidates. It all culminated with the crowning of the king and queen during halftime of Saturday's football game. Homecoming celebrations have certainly evolved over the years, and the future looks bright.

One of the challenges during this year's celebrations was the fact that we had Homecoming and fall break coincide for the first time since the fall break day off was added to the university schedule in fall 2005. This was also the second straight year fall break fell on a Friday, as fall break has coincided with the Columbus Day holiday weekend since its inception.

The Friday of Homecoming is perhaps one of the biggest "school pride" days of the year, with university community members and alumni decked out in their Hokie colors.  However, with it being fall break, the campus was almost deserted, and many university offices were closed or at minimal staff. While there were some activities, the attendance numbers were clearly lower than in previous years.

While upperclassmen stayed, a good number of freshmen decided to go home rather than experience the Homecoming weekend traditions. It is not the students' fault they want to enjoy a long weekend away from Blacksburg. Some residence halls were deserted by Thursday night as students had already headed home.

Some of the Hokie football message boards had comments asking why students would want to go home for a three-day weekend instead of going to the Boston College football game. I think that the answer is obvious, especially at the midpoint of the semester and also in light of the recent bout of illness that has been impacting students. While football is important, it is not the only thing that matters to students, as a three-day weekend outside of Blacksburg can be just as valuable.

Although the university can't do anything now that Homecoming is over, we can reflect and learn from this past week and plan for future situations in which Homecoming and fall break coincide. The university has two options: either avoid this situation in the future or explore ways to lessen the impact of fall break on Homecoming celebrations.

If fall break is going to coincide with Homecoming in the future, then efforts need to be taken to make it more festive and entering so more students will actually stick around for the weekend. For example, at my alma mater, the University of Florida, the Friday of Homecoming is a university and community holiday, and there are a number of activities that take place involving the community. The local schools are closed, and it becomes a celebration day for the entire community that begins with the annual Homecoming parade and then concludes with Gator Growl, held that night.

While this approach works at the University of Florida, there are many other approaches that work at other institutions. In the end, we need to look at the things that will work for this Tech community.

The other option is to avoid scheduling Homecoming and fall break at the same time. While the football schedule is not finalized until mid-February by the ACC office, this should still provide the university with ample time to make adjustments to the academic calendar. Many variables go into the development of the calendar, but the university should provide the flexibility to adjust fall break when necessary.

Fall break is not the only event scheduled in the fall semester as Family Weekend occurs this semester as well.  This is typically not on a home football game weekend. If this event can be scheduled around football games, then scheduling of fall break should be flexible.

I believe that we can learn from this experience so the next time the university faces this scheduling dilemma with Homecoming and fall break coinciding, efforts can be made to make the necessary adjustment, or the university can be better prepared to work with this situation.

Why make the community choose between using its fall break or participating in Homecoming?