Homecoming Council shares how they plan homecoming

Each year, the homecoming council at FIU puts together a week of events to try and get students more involved within the FIU community. The amount of effort it takes to put together the week of homecoming, as well as what happens behind the scenes, is what some FIU students might miss.

Amber Martinez, who is a participating for the first time on the homecoming committee for court affairs, shares her experiences being on the homecoming council and why she is excited to participate again next year.

“I would definitely advise getting involved,” said Martinez. “I am really involved. I’m Greek, I’m in student government, I’m a peer mentor and I’m in homecoming council. When people ask ‘what I do for fun?’ [I say that] I love doing my involvements. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Martinez shared with Student Media that she would like to be involved with homecoming again next year because of the people she was able to meet and work with.

“I’ve become super close to people at homecoming. I talk to them every day,” she said.

“[I] learned a lot of traditions through homecoming that I would have never known about,” said Martinez. “Homecoming is a way for the university to come together and share things. Homecoming incorporates students, the community, and alumni. It brings a lot of people together.”

Homecoming parade chair, Gabriel Tejada, also shared his experiences on why it’s important to be involved on campus.

“I believe that college in general is a great place for networking,” said Tejada. “It is really great to be out there [getting] involved and [showing] that you are involved. The homecoming council is a really great way to network, and is a great opportunity to get behind the scenes. [It] gets you to learn a little bit more about the industry, and see what it takes to create these really awesome events for the students.”

Tejada explained that the council undergoes a long process to plan these event. From the moment they finish their first impressions, the team starts working on putting together most of the events each year for homecoming week. The council hopes that students will come out and participate in all events lined up for this year.

“Be proud of what school you go to and come out and enjoy everything that we have to offer, said Tejada. “This is your time to enjoy school.”

Some of the main events taking place this year include Panthermonium, Unleash the Crown, Panther Prowl, Panther’s Got Talent and the Homecoming Parade.

 

Panthermonium

 

The first event that will start off homecoming week is Panthermonium. It’s a concert at the Modesto Maidique campus, and is also one of the biggest production events the homecoming committee puts together. Planning this event is a process that takes time when choosing the lineup.

“Panthermonium takes a long time, but overall we pretty much start [planning] for three months out,” said Tejada. “What we did specifically this year is mainly up to the eboard and advisors. They get the final decision but we as a council help them narrow down the list [of artists].”

Tejada explained that within the first few weeks, the homecoming council gives out their suggestions to the eboard and advisors. They explain why they should book the artists and they look at the budget.

From there, the council will then narrow down the selection and create a timeframe to present their selections to the eboard and the advisors. They will then make the final decision on who will perform at Panthermonium.

“Panthermonium is a big concert that we have and it is free for students in the student section,” said Tejada. “If you get the floor tickets you can get up close with the artists, but expect giveaways. Everybody has a ticket automatically in [their] one card. We have [had] pop up shops in the past month giving them confirmed tickets. We are really encouraging people to get those tickets now.”

This year’s lineup will consist of sets from MakJ, Lil Dicky and 2chainz. The event will take place on Sunday, Oct. 16 at the FIU stadium and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

 

Unleash the Crown and Royal Reunion

 

The homecoming council also puts together the court events that will crown the King and Queen of homecoming.

“We get about 46 applicants,” said Martinez. “It is a very long process just because you have to have all these requirements [to meet] and it is a lot of requirements.”  

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Martinez created a new event called Royal Reunion in the Graham Center’s faculty club. The exclusive event’s purpose was to bring together previous court title holders and current candidates with a dinner reception where they were able to give advice about running.

Some of the requirements for those participating in court was creating posters and attending a photoshoot session by the homecoming council.

“They have to make a poster and it has to be in by the deadline. Deadlines are really important when it comes to teams and running,” said Martinez. “We had a photoshoot on Sunday, and they had to come to that too.”

Martinez explains that the purpose of the photoshoots is to post the pictures on social media, that way everyone has a fair chance. She also said that this is the reason they changed the time for voting this year.

“The pageant is going to be on Monday and it is going to be before voting rather than having voting first and then the pageant,” said Martinez. “[This is] because it gives more of an opportunity for people to get to know these candidates rather than voting for someone just because you know them.”

The candidates get scored based off of their interview, votes, and the pageant itself. Prince and princess will be crowned during the Panthers Got Talent event, and the king and queen will be crowned during the homecoming game. Duke and duchess will be crowned at the pageant and do not get scored based on votes. Voting for the court can be accessed at the computer labs or on ipads from the homecoming committee at MMC and BBC.

 

Panther Prowl & Panther’s Got Talent

 

The comedy show called Panther Prowl will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at the FIU Arena. Special acts will include Nick Swardson and another local FIU comedian.

“The comedy show is one of our bigger productions that we produce,” said Tejada. “Nick Swardson is the main comedian. He has been a part of Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, and worked a lot with Adam Sandler. We expect him to be pretty good. For our opener, we are going to have a local FIU comedian as well.”

The Panthers Got Talent show will take place at the FIU Arena the following day on Thursday Oct. 20 at 5:30 p.m.

“The talent show is solely FIU students. It can be groups of people, solo acts and there is representations of different organizations that show off their talent to the whole FIU community,” said Tejada. “It can be dancing or doing a skit. It is crazy what students can make up, and how creative they can get. They get better every year.”

 

Homecoming Parade

 

The Homecoming Parade is the final event for homecoming week, and is also the longest running event the homecoming council has put together throughout the years.  

“Parade is the longest running homecoming event,” said Tejada. “It is the president’s favorite event. [Rosenberg] is the person that chooses the layout, what time it is and [how it will] correlate with the game. He always wants to be there.”

The parade will consist of over 100 participants either in the walking brigade, participating on a spirit car and with floats. Tejada explains that they get people from within FIU to participate in the parade as well as participants outside of the FIU community.

“We contact outside vendors, middle schools and high schools outside. They’ll bring their football teams, cheerleaders and sometimes we will even have food vendors out there,” said Tejada. “Also, we have Esserman Volkswagen participating with us this year. They are going to be bringing out some cars to put the homecoming court on.”

Any additional information about homecoming events taking place at both MMC and BBC can be found at FIU’s homecoming website http://studentaffairs.fiu.edu/get-involved/homecoming/