The excitement has begun. Homecoming is only two weeks away, and this year's "Fall FestDevil" is bigger, better and different.
And by that I mean I think people will actually be there.
A radical idea has swept though ASU, and homecoming is going to be about alumni - how novel.
Homecoming director Dave Wahls, a business senior, and his committee have been given an astronomical budget. This year, with the resignation of Tom Studdart, ASU's embodiment of the Alumni Association and ASU spirit, homecoming has been planned almost entirely by Wahls.
This has been a daunting task - a job that's executed typically by a University employee who's assisted by an undergraduate instead is being completed by Wahls and company. During a normal year, this would be overwhelming, but in the first year that the president's office is directly contributing and involved with FestDevil, the task has been even more daunting. Instead of the couple tens of thousands spent over the past few years, they have been given more than $100,000 for this year alone. Pretty impressive.
Don't get me wrong, Dave and his colleagues will still have to prove themselves to the ASU community. However, all outward signs (including the enormous ones covering the facades of multiple campus buildings and staked in planters across the malls) show they are doing their best. They clearly want students to feel a part of an event that had previously been geared toward, but largely unattended by, current students.
One of this year's main attractions (besides the game) will be Sparky's Carnival on the SRC Fields Thursday evening. The main attraction for Alumni will be the block party, during which University Drive will be closed and booze will be flowing in the beer gardens. A big move since we don't even sell beer at our football games.
Usually advertising consists of a few ads in The State Press, a couple of signs the week of homecoming and a bunch of unattended events. But perhaps the most important distinction is that in previous years, FestDevil didn't focus on anyone "coming home": It was all about the undergraduates. Don't ask why, because I have no idea why they would have homecoming for current students. However, this year there is a professional marketing company coordinating the public relations efforts of homecoming. They are finding ways to make the undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni feel connected to each other and to ASU.
Massive resources have been shifted toward the recruitment of Sun Devil Alumni who will be willing to visit their alma mater and, hopefully, open their wallets. This increased budget is not just for a bigger flop of a parade; the president's office and the ASU Foundation are gambling that alumni will return, feel reconnected to their school and wish to put ASU in the 'Pay to the order of' line of their checkbook.
FestDevil 2003 should be both an interesting and exciting experience. Having more alumni (and even apathetic students) at homecoming will be a nice change. I hope Dave and his crew get the credit that they deserve.
Matt Snowden is a finance senior. Reach him at matthew.snowden@asu.edu.
