Homecoming planners and administrators in the University’s alumni affairs office agreed Friday to call this winter’s event “Homecoming,” concluding a months-long discussion that began when an alumni affairs official suggested the designation confuses alumni.
After last year’s events, Keith Betts, executive director of alumni relations, raised concerns that the name implied the week offers alumni a chance to return “home” to GW, but is really aimed more at current students.
“If you look at institutions of higher education, Homecoming is a chance for alumni to return to their alma mater,” Betts said Thursday. “Currently, I see a problem with the name. If we can’t be a part of (Homecoming) as much as we’d like to be, then using the name `Homecoming’ is confusing to alumni.”
But Student Association President Carrie Potter, whose organization and the Program Board are major organizers of Homecoming week events, said Thursday she supported keeping the week’s traditional designation.
She added that students who have graduated from GW should be familiar with the nature of GW’s Homecoming celebration.
“I think the goal should be to include alumni in Homecoming, not get rid of the name,” Potter said.
GW’s Homecoming week traditionally centers around men’s and women’s basketball games, and features events which target both current students and alumni.
In citing his concerns, Betts said the logistical problems of holding large events in the colder winter months when events cannot be held outdoors means his office has limited resources to attract alumni to campus for Homecoming week events.
“We’ve had limited success in bringing (alumni) home to the University during Homecoming,” Betts said. “We have limited resources to use that week.”
As part of his goal to be a “team player,” Betts said he allocates a portion of his office’s overall budget to sending Homecoming invitations to local alumni.
But Betts said he and his staff focus their efforts on bringing alumni back for Alumni Reunion Weekend, slated for the last weekend in September this year.
In a meeting Friday, Betts, Student Activities Center Executive Director Mike Gargano and Potter said the discussion about changing the name has been a jumping-off point for conversations about how to make alumni relations a more visible part of campus life.
“Current students are alumni-in-residence,” Betts said. “The sooner we make the connection with the alumni office, the better.”
With a decision about the week’s name behind them, Betts, Gargano, Potter and graduate student Tony Sayegh, who is working in Betts’ office as a Presidential Administrative Fellow, said their next step is to “take Homecoming to a different level.”
“From my perspective, if Homecoming remained in its current form, if all the offices worked with the Homecoming committee, everyone would be better off,” Gargano said.
“Homecoming could be a much bigger thing and a much more inclusive thing for all groups – current students, alumni, faculty,” Betts said.
Betts said the alumni affairs office will participate in Homecoming this year by holding a brunch for alumni as it has in the past. Sayegh emphasized the office is taking an active approach toward the integration of events for alumni and current students that week and throughout the year.
“The connection needs to begin the minute a student comes on this campus, and the re-connection needs to happen the moment a student graduates,” Sayegh said.
