Attention Greyhound community: Homecoming has officially arrived! Starting today, Oct. 26, and continuing all weekend, Loyola’s past and present will come together for a fun-filled celebration of greyhound proud.
Homecoming is a tradition that is celebrated far and wide at American colleges and universities. The purpose of the event is to “engage and unite us as a school,” Senior Student Body President Lemuel Bourne explained.
This homecoming will mark the first year of what is anticipated to be a long-standing tradition here on the Evergreen campus, and the community is naturally curious as to what the weekend will entail.
“The Loyola community can expect laughs, memories to be made and an increased sense of school spirit. This is an awesome opportunity for alumni, current students, staff, faculty, administration, friends, and family to come together to share the experience of what it means to belong to the Loyola community,” SGA Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Matt Cannon said.
“From a pep rally, comedian, athletic events and mass, it will be a great weekend for current and former hounds to come together.”
In an effort to unite Loyola’s academic departments and affiliations across campus, the idea for this homecoming was envisioned about two years ago and we are finally seeing this event become a reality this year.
“The incentive came from recognizing that not only did we need to build up spirits on campus, but off campus as well. The alumni network of Loyola is vast and pretty communicative. But there isn’t one real event that allows all alumni and current students to be gathered in one area. This allows for old to meet new, and new to meet old” Cannon said.
In addition to the fun and games, the Evergreen campus can also expect to learn from Loyola alumni, the very individuals who once learned in our classrooms and have embarked on the career paths many of us are actively working toward.
Though there is currently no concrete estimate of how many alumni will be present on campus this weekend, Bourne is hopeful that in the coming years, past hounds will be able to mark down their calendars after this event has been solidified as an annual occurrence.
“Having a consistent time frame of when homecoming will be, will allow for alumni to make sure they have time set aside to come to homecoming and make any arrangements necessary to get here,” Cannon said. Nevertheless, the insight current Loyola students can obtain from former Greyhounds will never be as unmatched as it will this weekend.
The planning committee sees homecoming as a great opportunity for the entire Greyhound community together.
“We will be able to share stories and experiences that may be the same or different from those who walked this campus in the past. With that, we can gain insight into areas for improvement and get encouragement to continue in areas where we are headed in the right direction,” Bourne said.
As echoed by both coordinators, inviting alumni to mingle with our current student body will help us not only track our growth as a school, but also see where we could use some improvement. It is the hope of Bourne and Cannon that this community will overall come together through fun events and a shared understanding of what it means to be a Greyhound.
For more information on this weekend’s Homecoming event, visit https://www.loyola.edu/join-us/homecoming.
