Tents sprung far and wide; class reunions happening left and right; the smells of food wafting in from every direction; cheering and whistling heard from miles away. For most Albion alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents and families, homecoming is just one weekend out of the year. But for the minds behind homecoming, planning actually begins the year before.
Senior Director of Advancement Events, Conferences and Summer Programs Nancy Chapman, one of two central planners of homecoming this year, said preparations begin with scheduling the date of homecoming, which gets finalized over a year in advance.
“The next big thing,” Chapman said, is to build reunion committees – in other words, to round up alumni with big graduation anniversaries happening, and arrange for them to plan their class reunions, which happen during homecoming.
According to Senior Director of Alumni Engagement Amy Everhart, alumna ‘08, who co-organized this year’s homecoming celebrations with Chapman, there are seven class reunions meeting at homecoming this year: 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th, 50th and 51st+ – also known as the “Golden Brits” reunion. Everhart added that this year’s 50th reunion will be the most attended 50th reunion in her memory, and she’s worked at Albion for 11 years. Chapman and Everhart both work in Institutional Advancement (IA).
“This definitely has been one of the largest registrations for homecoming,” Chapman said. “We’re really excited that alumni are ready to come back and be on campus and know we’re moving in a good pathway forward.”
Chapman added that the next phase of planning, after reunion committees are formed, is “trying to get communication ready” and ordering things like tents and tables, all of which happens in late spring.
Planning also involves looking at the bigger picture and making changes. This year, Everhart said, there will be “a lot more down at the Dow,” instead of having tents and tailgating concentrated in the Ferguson parking lot, which has been the case for the last few years. Everhart added that this move was in part inspired by the parent tailgate already taking place near the Dow, on the east side of the football field.
“We wanted to have the homecoming celebrations feel like we’re all part of one community, rather than like, that group is there and everyone else is over here,” Everhart said.
The lunch tent, DJ, alumni board tent, kids’ tent and tailgates by different groups and organizations will all be “right as you enter the Dow, kind of by the tennis courts,” Everhart said.
“Our approach to homecoming is to have a menu of options for people,” Everhart said.
Chapman said that homecoming “is not just for alumni, it’s for our community as a whole,” including Albion students, their parents and families, faculty and staff in addition to alumni.
Homecoming “looks different to a lot of different people,” Chapman said, and it can be challenging to incorporate all of that feedback, but planning homecoming is still “exciting.”
Chapman also said that while she and Everhart are the “planning piece” of homecoming, they need “the implementation,” which they turn to other offices and departments on campus for help with.
“It’s so nice to have campus partners who are like, ‘How can we make this happen?’” Everhart said.
One of those campus partners is the grounds crew. John Hibbs, director of grounds, said for homecoming he and his staff “assist with the logistics of the events prior to the game and following the game.”
This includes overseeing tent installations, prep work for mowing and arranging floral centerpieces for tables. That’s in addition to everything grounds does to get ready for any home football game, Hibbs said, which includes setting up ticket booths, clearing all sidewalks and walkways by the football field, debris cleanup and providing parking for tailgaters. Homecoming is just a “little step further” than other home games, Hibbs said.
“We just try to be more diligent in how we present campus and the athletic area,” Hibbs said.
The grounds team also usually provides hay bales, pumpkins and mums for decoration, Hibbs added. He said he wants students to “be proud that their family’s coming and seeing where they’re staying.”
Another of Institutional Advancement’s campus partners is Metz Culinary Management. According to catering manager Pedro Hopkins II, Metz will cater for “probably 40 events total” on campus during homecoming celebrations. This ranges from simple “hot beverage stations” to the Hall of Fame dinner, which will have around 200 guests.
“You can’t just do it with just a few of us managers,” Hopkins said. “We need pretty much all hands on deck.”
Hopkins said that homecoming will be “a very busy three days,” but he and his team are “ready for it.” Hopkins added that the chefs “enjoy being busy” and he himself finds enjoyment in feeding so many people.
“I enjoy the responsibility, it feels like an honor to be able to help the campus in that capacity,” Hopkins said.
Everhart said it’s rewarding to see people having fun at homecoming, and to help “facilitate that sense of community and pride.”
“Albion is a place that means a lot to our alumni, and it means a lot to them to come back and celebrate with their classmates and with other alumni from throughout the years, and to meet our current students,” Everhart said.
Bonnie Lord also contributed reporting to this story.
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