005
THURSDAY. OCTOBER 27, 2005
HOMECOMING
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 5A
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No portion of the Homecoming competition quite so involved as float categories, parade
MELINDA RICKETTS
editor@kansan.com
KANSAN CORRESPONDENT
Homecoming season is here, and organizations are once again compet-
competing for the Overall Homecoming Award. The award is won by earning the most points, which are awarded for placing first, second or third in the Homecoming events, or, for those who don't win, a smaller amount for participation.
The single most points are awarded in the two float categories. Because of this, organizations dedicate a lot of time and effort to creating the prefect float.
"We take it seriously and we have a good time, but we go all out for this," said Eric Trompeter, Atchison junior and vice-president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, partnered with Alpha Delta Pi sorority this year, has won the event
three out of the past four years.
Trompeter said they plan to start working on their float on Sunday and continue throughout the week. Sometimes in the past they have had to work through the night on the Friday before the parade.
Trompeter said it was a very time-consuming process because they used chicken wire as a base and put tissue paper in all of the holes of the chicken wire. He said they usually had a lot of people working on it.
The nature of the float is usually kept a secret until the parade, Trompeter said. Rich Littrell, Lee's Summit, Mo., senior and parade co-chair, said the most important things to keep in mind to win creativity and sticking to the theme, which is "Hawks on Haunted Hill: Legends of the Fall" this year.
Littrell is also a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, but is not participating in its preparation
for the homecoming events this year because of his position on the homecoming committee.
The winning organizations' names will be added to the Overall Homecoming Award plaque that hangs in the Kansas Memorial Union.
Another incentive to win is the bragging rights. Greek organizations will often incorporate homecoming victories into their recruitment plans, Littrell said.
Floats will be showcased and judged at the parade at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29.
The parade will begin at the Kansas Memorial Union and continue down Jayhawk Boulevard to the Chi Omega fountain and will last 30 to 45 minutes. The winner of the Overall Award will be announced at the football game.
Judging of the floats will take place in the staging area prior to the parade and as the floats go past Wescoe Beach, where the judges will be sitting.
Big ghost on campus
CATHERINE OBSON
editor@kansan.com
KANSAN CORRESPONDENT
The men of Sigma Nu no longer occupy their house at 1501 Sigma Nu Place, but one tradition may linger behind. Virginia, the ghost of Windmill Hill, has resided in the mansion since before the fraternity moved into the former governor's house.
Former Governor Walter Roscoe Stubbs lived in the Lawrence mansion during his term in the early 1900s. Virginia was a maidservant in the house, but "The University of Kansas Report, Winter 1992," said Virginia was also Stubbs' adopted daughter.
Sigma Nu fraternity moved in to the house during the 1920s and stayed in the house until its charter was revoked earlier this year. House legend states the young woman was murdered in 1911 and continues to haunt residents and guests to this day.
Most reports dub Virginia as Stubbs' mistress and blame his
wife for her death.
A 1995 Kansan article said that Stubbs returned from a day trip to Topeka to find his 17-year-old mistress hanging from the light fixture in the ballroom; his wife sat nearby, incoherent.
Jake Finnicum, Omaha, Neb. freshman and former prospective Sigma Nu member, said the death really occurred in her dressing room, now the boiler room in the abandoned house.
Both accounts accuse Mrs. Stubbs of the April 1911 murder; she supposedly lived her later years in an asylum.
Perhaps on a related note, the Legislature appropriated $100,000 for the establishment of a state insane asylum before Stubbs' tenure as governor ended in 1913.
Another Kansan article said former residents often heard mysterious footsteps or rattling doorknobs.
Finnicum said that the back door to a room on the third floor, nicknamed the "Ward," was never closed when the Ward's five freshmen residents
awoke each morning.
Despite their efforts to keep the door shut, he said, it would always open.
Despite the random noises and occurrences the house's male residents experienced, Finnicum said Virginia usually haunted women.
The Kansan reported a former house director woke feeling Virginia's presence over her bed; she even smelled women's perfume.
The report said another house director stirred at the smell of smoke and discovered a woman at the foot of her bed smoking a cigarette. In the Stubbs' era, the room was the smoking porch of the servants' quarters.
Blair Gisi, Aberdeen, S.D., senior and former Sigma Nu member, said he never saw any reference to a ghost while he lived in the house. He said it had been a while since Virginia appeared.
Much of the lore surrounding Virginia centers on a plaque near the fireplace in a music room that read, "The world of strife shut out, the world of love shut in."
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