October 11, 2006

Homecoming Aims for Increased Student Involvement

Are you pumped about the upcoming Homecoming festivities on the weekend of October 20-22? If so, you should thank Marie Rymut, president of WCSA. If you are not pumped, simply do not thank her.

One of Rymut’s personal goals this school year was to increase student enthusiasm and participation during Homecoming 2006.

“Homecoming in the past at Ohio Wesleyan has been basically focused on alumni relations and community relations,” Rymut says. “We often forget about the students during this time.”

With the creation of the Student Homecoming Organization (SHO), Rymut hopes that future classes at OWU will learn to appreciate the festivities and have good experiences.

“The whole idea of a bigger student-oriented homecoming — I just want to engrain that thought,” Rymut says. “I think we have enough underclassmen in our homecoming leadership group to carry this tradition on and plan earlier and make sure their groups incorporate homecoming into their future plans.”

Brenda DeWitt, assistant director of alumni relations, is helping organize the weekend and says she is very excited about students becoming involved in Homecoming activities.

“I think that in past years, things have been tried to involve students, however, I think that programming for students needs to come from students,” DeWitt says. “I don’t think we are always successful knowing what students want, so I think it’s great that there’s a group of students which is really trying to get involved and get excited about Homecoming. I think it’s fantastic and is something to grow on for the future.”

DeWitt says one benefit of having Homecoming 2006 earlier in the fall is that the Homecoming 5K Pumpkin Run has joined with the City of Delaware’s Pumpkin Run.

“I think the race is going to be huge because it will involve the traditional homecoming runners but also the traditional city runners and people from the central Ohio community,” DeWitt says. “So we’ll get a lot of new people on campus for Homecoming this year that would normally come up for the race and then take off afterwards.”

Highlights of the weekend will include:

• A ceremony designating a portion of Henry Street as Branch Rickey Way
• Glee Club reunion
• 50th anniversary men’s lacrosse reunion
• Faculty book signings
• Athletics Hall of Fame inductions
• A bonfire on the Hill (following the soccer game Friday night)
• A low-key party in this reporter's room (probably Saturday)

For a complete list of Homecoming events and information, visit homecoming.owu.edu.

If anyone would like to attend Homecoming festivities with this reporter, please E-mail him at jjstenge@owu.edu.

— Jerome Stenger '07