by Krissy Proctor, Triangle staff writer
“It’s basically a popularity contest,” sophomore Lydia Steele said in reference to Bryan College’s annual Homecoming Court event, an opinion that appears to be the consensus of most students on campus.
“People just vote on people who they like,” agreed Showie Bray, another sophomore and member of last year’s freshman court. “It’s a lot of fun, but it’s not really a big deal.”
What exactly is this royal experience students are finding so trivial? A simple, straightforward ceremony in this day and age. Students vote for two male and two female students from their class during the days leading up to Homecoming Week. Members of the Senior Class cast a vote for four of each gender, for a total of eight casts per senior voter.
Later, during the Homecoming festivities, SGA will tally these votes and announce the winners during the Homecoming Banquet this Saturday. President Dr. Stephen Livesay will introduce the winners to the entire campus during the Homecoming game, along with two of the senior members who are to be crowned King and Queen.
However, this year the event is not drawing very much attention.
Students who make a habit of loitering in the dining hall have probably noticed a table, with four large, colorful buckets on it, sitting outside the cafeteria this previous week. Those same students will eventually notice it is not there anymore.
“We usually take it up after a week of voting,” Jessica Tameler, sophomore president, said Monday night. “Generally, everyone who is going to vote has voted by then.”
Out of Bryan’s 254 newly enrolled students, less than 50 voted in the Homecoming elections. The number is only slightly larger for the Senior Class, and 15-20 votes less for sophomores and juniors.
Baylor University students in Waco, Texas, established the tradition of Homecoming Week in 1909, with the court ritual coming into play several years afterward. At Bryan, the event seems to have roots as far back as 1957, though records suggest that the college could have had a Homecoming Court long before then.
Fifty years ago, students considered Homecoming Court one of the highlights of the year. Voting was a highly anticipated event, usually accomplished through secret ballot.
“It was very significant,” said Karin Traylor, a member of the Class of 1964 and administrative assistant to the academic vice-president. “We all voted for the queen.”
Traylor also said that in the past, the notion of a court did not produce the apathetic response it does now at the college.
“I voted for people that I knew,” she admitted, “but it was also about [voting for] people who had done well academically, been involved in the Bryan community…and were good representations of what the college was about.”
Whether the declining interest in the court tradition is a permanent attitude that comes with the progressing times or a factor unique to this student body is a question individuals will have to decide for themselves.