Three years after Homecoming was reinstituted, the campus’ turnout remains disappointing.
Only a tiny fraction of students showed up for the parade, and many confessed the festivities passed without their knowledge.
At a school as big as UCLA, it’s easy to write off this lack of participation as inevitable. Students have so much to do and their interests are infinitely varied.
But Homecoming should have something for everyone. The game itself was reason to celebrate: UCLA shut out a Pac-10 rival for the first time since 1987, beating Stanford 21-0. Of course not everyone cares about football, but why not unite for the sake of community every once in a while?
UCLA should be something all students can rally around, regardless of their personal background, politics or values.
School spirit is about enjoying your undergraduate years, being part of a community, and one day giving back to the university that got you started. Maybe UCLA needs more than a parade to get students excited. The campus used to host a May Mardi Gras – once the country’s largest student-run carnival – and this column suggested two years ago that Homecoming would be a good time to revive it.
Whatever it takes, UCLA should make Homecoming more than a pony-show for Parents’ Weekend.