University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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An ilumni returns to Cal for Homecoming md reflects on fiis time fiere on campus. Alumni represented generitlons past of Ca md allowed students to get a greater sense of tfie history of Cal ranged from academics and current events to Cal trivia. The students left victorious with 4.200 points, while the faculty scored 3.500 points. It was a nice opportunity for the fac- ulty and students to get together, because on this campus, except for office hours, it ' s really tough to see faculty outside the classroom or In the lab. I liked the fact that the audience got to see the human side of some of the faculty. said Simon. Johnny Moseley. the 1998 Olympic gold medal winner in the moguls, participated o n the student side, despite the fact that he had two midterms the next day. Students were very excited about this event and numerous people came up to Scheele asking her how to become a member of the student team. Audience members had the chance to win four roundtrip tickets to anywhere in the United States, cour- tesy of Southwest Airlines. What would Homecoming be without a rally? On Friday there was not one. but two rallies. The first was the noon rally on Sproui and the second was a rally at 7 p.m. in Haas Pavilion, the culmination of the week for the Rally Committee. The rally was huge this year. said Simon. I would like to think that was because there were some really nice synergies and marketing opportunities. The fact that we were able to get them their posters two and a half to three weeks before the rally gave Rally Committee a lot of time to prepare and get people to come Immediately following the Homecom- ing Rally. Cal Illuminated: A Retrospective Experience left from the Alumni House with approximately 200 people. This nighttime tour of campus, sponsored by the California Alumni Association Student Homecoming Team, Peefs Coffee and Tea. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Semifreddi ' s Bakery, allowed participants to experience the beauty, history and folklore of Cal through a guided tour by blue-and-gold glow sticks. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Memorial Clade was filled with children partaking in the Homecom ing Carnival and Cubfest on Saturday, which has happened for the past five years. There were 18 student organizations that hosted 25 booths. Among the activities were a balloon artist, face painting, carnival games, arts and crafts, and a pie toss. In terms of numbers, the Carnival and Cubfest was the biggest event of the week, with 740 people in attendance. 250 of which were children. It was really good because 1 saw parents, students, faculty-the future, present and past, of Cal-all together at once. said Aguiar. i see [Cubfest) as the per- sonification of what Homecoming is supposed to be Football was not the only sporting event ivolved in the multitude of homecoming activi ties. Before the football game on Saturday, the California women faced off against the University of the Pacific in a field hockey game at Maxwell Family Field and won in overtime, and the men competed In ice hockey against use. Sunday featured the men ' s soccer matct

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•emember it for next year. Scheele said. Rally Committee and Superb sfiowed Animal ouse In Wheeler Auditorium that night. :hristy Slojo. a sophomore sociology major and s the publicity coordinator for Rally Commit- :ee. said, People were very enthusiastic about omecoming. Some people came to Animal ouse dressed up in togas in the spirit of the novie. Tuesday was the Homecoming Banner :ompetition, which offered a $500 cash prize to ;he student group that won. The banners were ung on the balconies of the Martin Luther (ing Student Union building for the duration )f the week. Tuesday nighthad a colloquium n Anderson Auditorium in the Haas School of Jusiness. sponsored by the Rally Committee. ' I feel the most successful event that we held other than the Homecoming Rally] was our Homecoming colloquium, where we had three )f our Nobel laureates on campus and one of )ur Pulitzer Prize winners speal . Siojo said. It was a really great way to get people spirited bout Cal. Rallies are one thing, but when you ;et some of our prize-winning professors to ;peak about their experiences at Cal and how nuch they love the university, it ' s a different ay of getting people spirited. Late Tuesday night was the California Caba- et at the international House, which featured tudent singers and dancers. Auditions were eld in Morrison Hall a week before the show, bn Sunday, three days prior to the show, there Lvas a rehearsal, where individual students and jroups each performed their own acts. There were 12 acts ranging from singing and dancing to comedy, including a men ' s a capella group jnd a group of Hawaiian dancers. Acts ranged from well-established campus groups to fresh faces that put on their first performance here after just meeting in the dormitory. Thais Zayas-Baz3n, a fifth-year majoring in integra- tive biology, who performed At Last, was disappointed in the turnout of the audience ind felt the program could have been adver- tised better. It was disappointing that a lot of jeople didn ' t show up, Zayas-Bazan said, But. IS a performer. 1 think it ' s not so much the turnout but the experience. But from the audi- ence standpoint, the more people there are. the more the audience thinks it ' s a better show Students found themselves waiting in long Flines on upper Sproul Plaza on Wednesday as lu.SOO free white T-shirts with this year ' s home- coming logo on the front were given away. Simon felt that this was the most successful event of the week because students wore the shirts even weeks after Homecoming. This proved that the culture around Homecoming isn ' t just a one-time thing. Showcase on the Steps. designed to celebrate Cal student performances featured various cultural student groups, such as Cal Wushu. Theater Rice and the Movement. Those groups can go and reserve the steps themselves, but we wanted to highlight several groups, so we facilitated that by reserving the area and setting it up. said Matt Aguiar, a third-year majoring in economics and the chair of the Student Homecoming Team. Thursday featured the Cal Can Creation Competition in which various student groups created constructions out of canned food on lower Sproul Plaza. It was great to see a Creek Week team win the ' construction ' and then be covered in all the major Bay Area newspapers. Through involvement in Homecoming, we were able to increase the expose of the Creek Com- munity in a positive way. showing the Greeks giving back, said Simon. Over 1,840 pounds of canned food was donated to the Alameda County Food Bank. Julia Ungert, a third year majoring in busi- ness, was the assistant chair and felt that this was the most successful event since: It was philanthropic, but it also got so many groups involved, and it was really visible. This was one of the events we were really unsure about, since it was the first year, but it was something that really shone through. The Battle of the Brains, a Jeopardy-like contest between students and faculty, took place was on Thursday night. The questions Proudly displaying their free Hometoming T-shirts, lonaihjn Chun, len Seto, Connie Chou and Justin Uu were Just few of the students who wilted In long lines to receive them total of J.500 free T-shirts were given awiy In a single afternoon. In one of the most popular events of the weel

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against Stanford, preceded by a Kick-the-Red- 3ut Soccer Tailgate at the Alumni House. The fact that we were able to give highlight and jxposure to the soccer team when football gets sredominantly all the attention in the press «as great, said Simon. The Creek community had a few of its own events, including a sorority progressive dinner, where one house invited another house over ' or dinner and dessert was then served at the Dther house, and the All Creek Invitational, jreek Week is held every year, and Anastasia jtamos. the overall events coordinator, thought n order to make both Homecoming and Creek Week bigger, both events should be held imultaneously. A lot of times. Homecoming s considered a Creek-only event, said Simon. Traditionally across the country, fratemi- ies and sororities have been big participants nd supporters. However, the traditional lomecoming wouldn ' t work at Berkeley, and I Students have a chance to network with someone From the class of 1939, when rent was only four dollars. hink the students did an excellent job to get he Creek support, but also, political groups, social groups, literature groups, and athletic groups that normally don ' t get a whole bunch of atten tion during the week. There really was something for everyone. Next year. Aguiar would like to focus more on the weekend when alumni and parents are back. Simon would also like to see the events on the weekend grow, because for him the weekend represented the life cycle of students to alumni throughout the week. Students have a chance to network with someone from the class of 1939. when rent was only four dollars. There is a real value in having a sense of understanding of the history of the place you ' re attending. The success of this week was clearly evident in student group participation, which more than quadrupled this year. Simon felt the success of the week was attributed to the leadership of 19 students, representing over 55 campus organizations. I think a lot of times projects on this campus fail because the students behind them are all from the same place. said Simon. Having such a diverse Student Homecoming Team helped the event be successful from the very start because those people had the connec- tions to all these different pockets of the com- munity around Cal. The success of this year ' s events had the campus ready for the prospects of future Homecoming Weeks that are even larger. In looking to next year. Aguiar exclaimed, 1 would like to continue [to make Homecom- ing] bigger and better.... so hopefully people will look forward to it as a fun way to start off the year. Now that people know about it. I ' ll think we ' ll be able to get a lot bigger and get a lot more student groups involved. rr A bounce house on Lower Sproul Plaza allows students to return to the days of their youth. Throughout the week, students had various actlvltes to participate in from student performances 10 academic- related eveents.