A banner hung over the entrance to East Stroudsburg University and read, "Welcome Home ESU Alumni," and fraternity and sorority banners with similar messages adorned the outside of the University Center on the morning of ESU's 2009 homecoming. While homecomings everywhere have always been centered around a football game, homecoming at ESU has outgrown the football game.
Students use homecoming as an excuse to print T-shirts, binge drink, and behave recklessly and dangerously.
T-shirts printed by students appeared to be the main unifying theme of this year's homecoming.
Different fraternities, sororities, and seemingly random groups of students made shirts with different sayings printed on them. One shirt read, "We may be bitches, but at least we aren't Husky," which refers to the Bloomsburg University's mascot, the Husky. This was one of the few references to the actual homecoming football game I saw printed on shirts.
One of the fraternity/sorority shirts read, "Show up, Throw up, Grow up," which was printed in green lettering on gray shirts. The school spirit there was clearly lacking since nothing on the shirts had anything to do with ESU; however, most Greek organizations on campus have highly planned homecoming festivities, ranging from breakfast to barbecues, and some members also make it to the game. Homecoming is an event for the fraternities and sororities on campus, and it's filled with activities centered around reuniting with alumni and spending time together as an organization.
Most students at ESU are not this organized in their effort to get drunk and half-heartedly support their school. Many students feel that going to the football game interrupts their partying.
Sophomore Jamie Bricker said, "I probably would have gone to the game if it wasn't on Saturday because that's when everyone is doing something. There are tons of houses having parties during that time. If it was on Sunday, I would have gone."
Bricker and several other underclassmen did not know who the homecoming king and queen were this year, nor did they know how they were picked. However, all of these underclassmen knew of and planned on attending, at least two homecoming parties going on during the football game.
Also, many current and former ESU students chose to celebrate homecoming at Rudy's bar and grill. Every year, Rudy's opens their parking lot up to ESU alumni, and it is always packed. This year, many of these ESU affiliates wore ESU colors, clothing, and even face paint, but few had attended the game. There is more school spirit directed at drinking than there is at actual school events.
Some students feel that one reason for the lack of school spirit at ESU is because of its size; it just may not be a large enough school to support.
Senior Ed Mallas, says, "We're not Penn State. Lots of kids here don't really care about the football team or any sports teams because of that. I go to football games and other athletic events here and people don't really show up, and it's their loss. Students here seem to think that in order to have fun at these games, you need a huge stadium and a spot on College Game Day."
It seems that Burgy, the Warrior mascot, really is ESU's biggest fan.
email Gen at: gkw9468@esu.edu
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