Homecoming is working

Cornell Homecoming, the weekend event, not just the football game, was 3 quarters of rainfall short of being a rousing success. Cornell has moved homecoming to the front end of the season and focused on young alumni. Plus lots of family-friendly activities pre-game to attract faculty families and townspeople, preceded by Friday night fireworks / laser light show. A *lot* of people came back. The day started warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt. Every college except, I believe architecture, had tents with free food and giveaways before the game. I was impressed. After the sloppy first quarter, the rain picked up and with Cornell up at halftime, perhaps half the crowd left for parties or to follow the game on the new HD Redcast. I hope the rain didn't mess up the broadcast quality.

The Cornell Sun ran a pretty even-handed piece on campus drugs Friday, Molly: The New 'It' Party Drug. (Sort of like Ecstasy Part II.) Saturday at pre-game there were a handful of people overdosing on the old It drug, alcohol. Maybe it was more than a handful, but there were a visible handful of sloppy drunks. Three women in sorority homecoming tank tops walked arm in arm in front of Bartels, the one in the middle stopped to toss lunch onto Campus Road, and the trio staggered off. All drunks are bad, but sloppy-drunk women seem a little sadder. Plus they have to sober up early Sunday to untag themselves.

Cornell a couple years ago talked about ways to pull alumni to campus other than reunion, believing it's your other affiliations - band, Sun, fraternities / sororities - that bind you to Cornell and Homecoming is one of those non-Reunion gatherings that is really clicking.

billhoward
Cornell Homecoming, the weekend event, not just the football game, was 3 quarters of rainfall short of being a rousing success. Cornell has moved homecoming to the front end of the season and focused on young alumni [and provided fun activities for families].

It's the second and third rather than the first. The first weekend is exactly the wrong weekend for Homecoming, and I'm glad we're saving the date for, IIRC (because: beer), 10/18 next year.

Scersk '97
The first weekend is exactly the wrong weekend for Homecoming

Odd, too, since games 3 and 4 are also home this year.

The other advantage of Homecoming early in the season is to get students psyched for football, or at least the pre-game sanctioned parties and free food surrounding the game, and maybe that carries over to the remaining home games. And it's likely to be warmer.