Lack of advertising for homecoming leaves students disengaged from its festivities
By Holly Vogtman
Staff Writer
hollyv1@umbc.edu
Lack of advertising for Homecoming has left the student body uninformed and disengaged from this year’s events. Students that both commute and reside on campus share the belief that Homecoming has not been properly advertised and its complementary activities appear to be unknown.
UMBC Homecoming 2014 is right around the corner. Or is it? The dates for this year’s homecoming are difficult to locate due to the lack of advertising for this year’s events.
Students are not informed on Homecoming Activities for the week of Oct. 6 because they have not been exposed to enough advertisements detailing the events and the dates themselves.
A resident student and political science major, Ralph Cyrus, said, “It’ll be hard to partake in any of the activities because I’ve seen zero advertisements for any of it. I don’t even know the date.”
However, there are posters scattered through campus along Academic Row, outside the library and on the second floor of The Commons that give brief highlights to the week’s events that include “Homecoming Hype,” a bonfire, talent show and other activities.
In this age of increased technology, poster advertisements are not going to cut it to spread the word to students who spend more time on their phones and laptops then viewing advertisements on campus.
Student Events Board advisor, Morgan Simonds, said, “Some forms of advertising include but aren’t limited to large flyers, buttons, coffee sleeves, table tents in the dining hall, social media (MyUMBC, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter) events and statuses.”
Of those, the only advertising forms that are easily visible on campus have been the large flyers and the events listed online in the calendar.
Homecoming for UMBC should be advertised online under the spotlight section of myUMBC, but its presence is nowhere to be found. Footage and photos of last year’s activities should be getting posted to create hype among students for this year.
There should be more detailed explanations of the week’s events online and a description of why there is no activity planned for Tuesday.
Because UMBC is not historically a football university, its participation in Homecoming is unique and should be better advertised to make up for the lack of sports hype.
Homecoming activities at other universities consist of events centered on football, so it is important for the students of UMBC to learn how this university compensates and uses its uniqueness to its advantage.
Students new to UMBC are only going to have the general image of what homecoming usually consists of: football games and tailgating. The events of UMBC’s homecoming need to be described better by their leaders so students are aware of what they could be a part of.
There is always some distance, lackluster participation and lack of knowledge of campus events for the commuter population. However, it is expected that the residential students would be more informed, but they are not.
Junior political science and psychology major and RA Emily Bernstein initially had no ideas on how to address homecoming to her residents. “Before this e-mail I didn’t have much of a plan but…I am going to put up a poster in my hall with the question: ‘What makes UMBC feel like home?’ and leave a marker and space for residents to write in answers,” she said.
Perhaps RA’s should be given incentives to create a homecoming friendly environment for their residents or responsibility to advertise and excite students on the week’s activities.
Homecoming is an integral start of a university’s school year, and UMBC needs to expand their methods to spread word on upcoming events, especially on something as large scale as Homecoming.
