Editorial: Homecoming: Way too overblown on Tech's campus
Friday, October 3, 2008; 12:00 AM

Consider for a moment Homecoming week at Virginia Tech; not at all very different from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Two weeks of T-shirt making, campaigning, partying and celebrating centered on each party's "candidate" of choice. Now that the reasons behind national conventions have been widely debated, it seems to us like much to do about nothing; similar to yes, Homecoming elections.

While we realize that Homecoming is a time-honored tradition in college, it is also safe to say that there are only a select group of people on our campus who actually care about who becomes king and queen, mainly those belonging to Greek life organizations and similar student groups on campus.

Homecoming itself is supposed to mean so much more than that. Its history is rooted in traditionally welcoming back former students and alumni for a celebration centered around sports. and, in our case, events specific to Hokie culture. The Third Eye Blind Concert on Tuesday was a great way to bring students together for a night in Burruss Hall.

The part of Homecoming week annoying to most students on campus, however, is the campaigning for the young men and women on this year's Homecoming elections. For those involved in campaigning, we can handle your Facebook statuses and updated Facebook pictures with your candidates of choice plastered across the screens. We can handle your cars with hokey sayings (pun intended) scribbled across your back windshield. We can handle the banners and the signs and the equally cheesy T-shirts worn by sorority girls across campus. By the way, do these girls just do laundry every night, or do they actually own five replicas of the exact same T-shirt? Even that's OK. That's fine. We'll chalk it up to tradition and school spirit and enthusiasm for the sake of, well, enthusiasm.

But what became more than annoying during these past few days of voting were the fliers handed out to anyone who walked within a mile radius of our Drillfield.  Those fliers just end up in the trash. That, or littered across the Drillfield. The majority of students walking across campus do not personally know the women and men being campaigned for, so what desire would those students have to go online and choose the name on the flier handed to them by Newman Library? It doesn't make sense. We don't know what kind of people they are and how much they give back to the Tech community.  

With that said, we wish all the people on the Homecoming Court the best of luck, but leave the population of students at Tech who honestly couldn't care less out of it.

The most popular question circulating Tech's campus in these past few weeks: "Have you voted?" We have enough people asking us to do that in Obama pins and shirts. The girls in Greek letters need to leave us alone.

You might be interested in... Related Topics: campaign, homecoming, editorial
Posted by: Voice of the masses at Oct 14 "This year's court is made up of amazing student leaders and fantastic role models." So what? Congrats to them, but what does that do for us? And besides, all of the leaders could be described as such--after that it's basically a popularity contest. Bottom line, the vast majority of students DON'T CARE. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Peter Tork at Oct 7 Cheer up, sleepy jean. Oh, what can it mean. To a daydream believer And a homecoming queen. Flag Abuse
Posted by: I LOVE HOMECOMING at Oct 5 The reason they hand you the flyer is because they hope that you will check out their website in order to learn about them and their AMAZING contributions to campus. This year's court is made up of amazing student leaders and fantastic role models. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Thanks CT...sike at Oct 4 Thank you to all of the candidates who spent the endless hours campaigning and spreading the word about this homecoming tradition (those who went through a rigorous interview process to be one of 16 leaders selected from the Class of 2009). Also CT...you do realize that you have a candidate representing your organization...SURPRISE! A "thanks I already voted" easily sufficed. Get excited about the tradition, no need for this pointless article. Flag Abuse
Posted by: anonymous at Oct 3 you do realize that just because they are king and queen, it doesn't mean they are getting married right? hell, they don't even have to make out if they don't want to... Flag Abuse
Posted by: PJ at Oct 3 It was particularly creepy last year to have a brother and sister Homecoming king and queen. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Anonymous at Oct 2 I personally haven't heard too much on campus thankfully. However, when I did hear the overly confident, girly shouts of "Vote for (name)," I felt like I was on some MTV show or overly dramatized college movie. I think it's fun for them, but I think it is pointless to have a homecoming queen and king since most of the students have absolutely no idea who that person is. Flag Abuse
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