Carleton’s Throwback homecoming Sept. 19-22 marks the return of football on campus after 15 long years—but putting together a solid team is only half the game plan.
The three-day celebration is packed with events thanks to a massive effort from many Carleton groups—from students and faculty, to security and alumni.
Students from campus groups such as the Rideau River Residence Association, the Graduate Students’ Association, and the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) guided planning at every step, student affairs director Ryan Flannagan said.
There was a student committee formed, he said, which was divided into subcommittees such as events and traditions.
Hayley Dobson, CUSA vice-president (student life), worked on pre-homecoming events with the 12-member student planning committee.
“I had mentioned from the beginning that CUSA wanted to host the concert on the Friday night to really kick off the weekend,” she said via email.
The concert is scheduled to be a paint party—something Dobson described as a “Cirque de Soleil” style performance, but with a paint blast and DJs. The event is being presented by Life in Color, and is the first of its kind in Canada, Dobson said.
“The production is going to be really unique and I think people are going to be surprised when they see every aspect of the show working together,” she said.
There can’t be a homecoming without returning alumni, and the university has made a strong effort to get former students back for events during the week, Mark Savenkoff, director of alumni and donor relations, said. The journalism class of ’88 and the engineering class of ’73 will both be holding reunions on the first day of homecoming.
The Carleton Alumni Association had its own planning committee, and many faculties have taken on hosting events for former students. Alumni were approached early in the year with ads in Carleton University Magazine and social media campaigns, and will get a discounted price on football tickets.
Savenkoff said he anticipates thousands of members of the Carleton community to join over the course of the week.
Safety is a concern as homecoming is traditionally synonymous with heavy drinking and reckless partying. Arrests in 2009 resulted in the cancellation of homecoming at Queen’s University in Kingston.
The department of university safety has hired additional officers for several events, including the football game. The department will work with the Ottawa Police Service and Athletics Events staff to ensure safety, community liaison officer Mark Hargreaves said.
