I’m not sure how many people read the comments to this site- but I’d like to redirect your attention to one that was posted earlier today, and leave it open to discussion- so please comment and express your feelings.
“Hey,
It’s not too soon derail the politics of that rediculous Homecoming parade reroute. Dr. Brown said that if it were to be determined that the reroute was a mistake(it for sure was), that he would be open to discussion to change it back…….. or something or other.
I am very interested in how the students feel about this…especially the upper classmen who may remember the way it used to be.
As an alumnus, I think that for 362 days out of the year, EUP is about students earning their degrees and/or education, but for 3 days in October it’s about alumni returning “home”. Don’t forget: someday hopefully you all will be alumni, and WE will need to keep OUR event OURS; not just on the whims of the politcal powers that be.
Am I wrong on this??”
I know a lot of older alumni (40+) and younger alumni (<30) and they have two very different outlooks on alumni. The 30+ club comes back to see old friends, show the campus to their kids, see the parade, see the game, etc. These are the people that actually donate to the university, so they get bonus points. The under 30 crowd typically come to see friends that are still in school and get drunk. I sort of float both crowds because I love to come back and visit but also have a good time. The family and donor crowd thought the new route was very nice, and the younger party group obviously didn’t like it because they couldn’t watch floats and bands with a red Solo cup in their hands. I was told the university took a lot of shit leading up to Homecoming, but after got a ton of compliments.
My parents are alumni that graduated more than 30 years ago. They have friends that haven’t been on campus since the day they left. Those friends came back this year for Homecoming and it was the first time they stepped foot on campus since graduation and would not have if the parade didn’t run through campus. They went from never-givers to the university to now giving. In the end, the new route won a couple over and turned them into believers. I just don’t think that it is going to be back. In 4 or 5 more years, hardly anyone will remember or complain about the parade route. People bitched a few years ago when they switched the direction – same route. People just like to complain.
SURPRISE!!! I’m one of those 30+ers that graduated in the late ’70s. I am also a donor and my wife and I have realized the ultimate Edinboro dream: we bought a house and live there from May through October; leaving for the winter to our home in Texas. I haven’t gotten a single thumbs up from anyone in my alumni group, or the townspeople I spoken to. And I really do want to know what the students think. But if there are some who walked on campus for the first time since they graduated, and became donors as well for the first time, then good for them and the University.
Joe, I am generally NOT a complainer….I hate it, but felt it important enough to voice my concern, not only on my own behalf, but for those many people who were disappointed and won’t be back. Two of the most important aspects of an alumni group are financial and social, and it would be terribly wrong for many to become disassociated either way; but especially during Homecoming.
The solution is rather obvious I think. A parade route that includes both the campus and town. I have heard the naysayers who claim that it can’t be done, but I don’t believe that. Compromise, think it through………Great things can happen!
The town’s people feel that homecoming was the time where the university and the town come together. Major events have been changed because – “Oh, that’s homecoming weekend – we need to do that another time.”
Now I believe there is a big fence around the university that is not including the town. Most townspeople did not go to the parade. It was the first one my family has missed in 32 years (and our children and my husband and I are all alumni).
I feel Dr. Brown is using EUP as a stepping stone for bigger things and am sad his legacy will be he was the “president who took homecoming out of the town”.