Let’s talk about St. Olaf Homecoming. What was supposed to be a weekend of Ole pride, student life, and fun ended up as a typical ghost town weekend on the Hill, unless you count the endless amounts of screaming children running rampant. Don’t even get me started on that issue. I truly do love children, but homecoming is not a child-friendly event. You know it’s bad when your homecoming has more events for five-year-olds than it does for the 20-year-olds who actually attend the school. These kids had a bouncy house, carnival games, and a cotton candy machine.
I pay close to 60,000 dollars per year to go to school at St Olaf, and the local public school down the street has more going on than our private institution. Instead of a fun weekend on the Hill, many Oles fled campus and headed into the cities for the real party at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Supposedly our theme was “Wizard of Oz”, but who could tell? There was zero connection or meaning other than the five-dollar T-shirts that organizers failed to order enough sizes for. Maybe this was due to a lack of funding but there are still loads of other opportunities that could have been taken advantage of. Where is St Olaf’s Ole Pride?
When I arrived at the football game, I witnessed a disaster of a student section, which only started halfway through the game. Thank God for the “main character energy” group that started it all. Why weren’t there dress up days or the famous “Pause Dances” or concerts? Where was the social media engagement and advertising? I swear I saw one singular poster, and it was hung up the weekend of homecoming. Was it really homecoming or was it simply just parent weekend? Going forward these events need to be separate.
Homecoming 2023 needs spirit, and will hopefully not silently pass us by like 2022 did. As of right now, students who enjoy homecoming are currently running to the University of Minnesota.
Brooke Ellis is from Cottage Grove, Minn.
Her major is undeclared.
