THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
FLOATS
PAGE 9
Homecoming floats present challenge chance to socialize
JOSH KURELAC editor@kansan.com
For the KU Greek community, Homecoming Week is the culmination of months of planning, working and competing.
Before any festivities begin, both a fraternity and sorority must reach an agreement to work together on a float throughout Homecoming Week. Representatives from houses contact each other to negotiate a possible partnership. Once two houses come into contact, members hold housewide votes to decide whether they can to enter official agreement for the week of Homecoming with a specific fraternity or sorority.
"It's a great way to come together with other houses." said Jessica Mills, a sophomore from Overland Park in Kappa Delta sorority.
"It's a great way to come together with other houses."
Some houses even have people on watch duty at night to make sure their float remains unharmed, because there have been issues with vandalization in the past. On Saturday, after a long week of hard work and preparation, the real fun begins. The day starts with teams putting the finishing touches on their floats to ensure the floats will be in top shape for the parade. Then, starting at the Oread Hotel, the parade of floats travels down Jayhawk Boulevard, giving everyone a chance to see creations that were put together during the past week.
The week begins with the purchase of a trailer to hold the float. Next, supplies are purchased to help build the float. Every night, sorority members go to their partner fraternity house to work on the float, which is typically kept at the fraternity.
JESSICA MILLS
A sophomore from Overland Park
"Everyone knows what everyone else is doing."
Throughout the week, sorority and fraternity members constantly work on the float in an attempt to get a competitive edge on their opponents.
"[The house] is always loud because people are constantly planning and working on the float," said Sean Tokic, a sophomore from in Phi Psi fraternity.
The floats are evaluated by a panel of judges, which is chosen at random but always includes the student body president.
After a winning pair is declared, the tailgating parties for each house pair begin.
"It's a perfect time to talk to alumni and catch up with everyone." Tokic said.
Eventually, most people make their way into the game to enjoy the football game along with other Homecoming festivities. Finally, the house pairs get ready for their social events to cap off the week.
"There's no other week like Homecoming Week," Tokic said.
Edited by Emily Glover
GREEK
SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY
Fraternity and sorority students construct a float for the homecoming parade in 1965. Fraternities and sororities have collaborated during Homecoming Week for years.
Relationships aren't always easy during Homecoming Week
Homecoming Week collaborations can result in new friendship or new enemies
SIERRA PALLER editor@kansan.com
chapter is allowed to pick another chapter to partner with, the pairings may not always work out
Each year, the Greek community divides into pairs and conquers the task of nonstop nights, competitions on Wescoe Beach and the homecoming float parade.
"pumping" once during the week," said Ashley Farha, a sophomore from Leawood, who belongs to
Glitter, glue, chicken wire and hard work fill the nights as each sorority and fraternity pair competes to build the best float in the spirit contest. Although every
"The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of homecoming are the floats."
some cases,
great friend-
ships are
formed and
new study bud-
dies are found.
But others are
not so lucky. Everyone hopes to have a week
STEPHANIE TAYLOR A senior from Wichita
Chi Omega. "We weren't really friends with our partners Pi Kappa Phi, but it was fun to meet guys I probably wouldn't have otherwise."
effort so I can talk with friends while working at the same time," said Stephane Taylor, a senior from Wichita and president of Alpha Gamma Delta.
charge of constructing the floats and the sororities help to "pomp" or decorate them.
Building a float is not only a tradition at the University, but it provides a fun atmosphere during homecoming week.
"The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of homecoming are the floats. For many organizations on campus it is a tradition to spend homecoming week 'pumping' and perfecting their float. I like 'pumping' because it doesn't take a lot of
"My favorite part of homecoming is the parade. All the floats are usually centered around the homecoming theme but it is neat to see how they all are so unique and different," Taylor said.
Any student group is allowed to build a float and participate in the parade. The fun atmosphere that comes with Homecoming provides a week where students can focus less on their studies and concentrate on keeping an old tradition alive.
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— Edited by Emily Glover
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Each night the houses "pomp" or get together to construct and decorate their floats, some staying up all hours of the night to make sure their float structure and decorations look perfect.
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