Homecoming week is booked full of activities for students and alumni, and from the full-color door-hangers advertising the events to the disc jockey in charge of entertaining tailgaters at the football game, all of the funding for Homecoming week comes from the student service fee students pay each semester as part of tuition.
Kevin Bazner, assistant director of student development and orientation, said the budget for Homecoming dropped by $3,000 from the previous year down to $32,000 for fall 2013.
“Our office did a good enough job where we collaborated with other areas and kind of worked around so students did see as much of an impact, but there was a reduction,” Bazner said. “Most of the advertising you’ll see on and around campus transforming the university for Homecoming comes out of that budget.”
Bazner said Homecoming week helps contribute to retaining students at the university, which has been a problem for MSU in recent years.
“If you’re looking more or less from an enrollment and retention sort of strategic initiative, I think this year, at least of the four years that I’ve been here, we’ve had a great turnout for all the events,” Bazner said. “The energy is being increased from years prior, and then all of that will culminate into higher retention and more engagement with the university.”
Mario Ramirez, activities coordinator for student development and orientation, said events like Homecoming create school pride with students, which then aids in retention.
“All those different events help with the energy, and from there students can feed off into loving their school, which eventually has them stay here,” Ramirez said. “If they’re involved, having a good time and getting their education, then I think the events that we put on are definitely contributing to that.”
Ramirez said that due to the budget cuts, his office had to look into using other departments such as facilities services to help set up the event.
“Facilities put up the flags, all those MSU flags, down Taft and Midwestern Parkway. That was their contribution,” Ramirez said. “We collaborate with a lot of other offices and other buildings, such as the police department. We’ll work with facilities and athletics just so we can have everyone on the same boat.”
Bazner said even the additional help needed from the fire department for the bonfire comes at no additional cost to the university.
“We coordinate with the fire department and they’re out there just doing their own job to support the university and our events,” Bazner said.
Of the $32,000 budget that Student Development and Orientation receives for Homecoming, $13,000 went to tailgating for the football game, torchlight parade and bonfire, and Bazner said the fireworks are one of the most consistently debated aspects of that $13,000.
“I know specifically two years ago we touched on that with some of the budget cuts that our university was facing, we mentioned that as one of the things that could potentially be removed,” Bazner said, “but it was actually discussed through the student allocations committee as something that the students really look forward to at all the different Homecoming events.”
Ramirez said the torchlight parade and bonfire were his favorite traditions when he was an undergraduate at MSU.
“We didn’t participate in the torchlight parade because we were setting up for the stage over there, but as you watch it, I don’t know, this is super cheesy, but you see it and you get a good feeling of pride of being at MSU because it’s nice to see all the students participating,” Ramirez said. “Now that I got to see it from the outside, it was even better.”
Bazner said if students feel that their fee money could be better spent, they have the ability to voice their opinion through that allocation committee or through the Student Government Association.
“But if it’s something that students always look forward to, then sure we’re obviously going to make sure we keep that,” Bazner said.
Bazner said this year was one of the more extensive years that they used student input to plan the event.
“I think we’re going to grow on that because it’s obviously student money that is being spent and we want to make sure that we’re doing what the students want,” Bazner said. “Increasing the amount of student involvement and student input to not only have the extra help, but the extra input as far as what the actual students want to see.”
Bazner said the increasing number of residential students has put additional strain on his department, as the total number of students has remained the same while on-campus students have gone up, meaning there is more demand for campus activities and no additional funding.
“It does put a little bit more stress or performance requirements on the resources we have on campus because residential students use up more resources,” Bazner said. “That’s something we’ll definitely have to look in to making sure we’re still catering to the population that is here.”
VIEW related editorial cartoon by Johnny Blevins.