There’s been a definite increase in participation in Homecoming Week events, according to Student Foundation Homecoming Committee Chair Cathleen Good.

There’s also been an increase in competition between participating organizations.

“If something goes wrong in one event, I will get a hundred different emails,” Good said. “They all want to win, and they want to make sure that all their people showed up for Community Service Day and everyone got credit for coming.”

Good said she feels that the increased participation stems in part from non-Greek organizations, and she noted, “It’s not just Greek letters that you’ll see on Saturday in the parade.”

“I feel like SMU is maybe moving on from just the Greek system and maybe more organizations because we have a lot of diverse organizations,” she said. “I feel like organizations want to become more involved on campus; [they] want to become bigger. If you’re involved in Homecoming, you can be considered one of the largest organizations on campus.”

But Greek participation has also increased.

“This year we have all Greek organizations that are able to participate and aren’t on probation participating,” Good said. “Phi Delta, which has never participated in the last four years – this is their first year, so they’re very excited about that because the seniors have never participated in Homecoming.”

Good and Student Foundation have been planning this week’s activities since last year.

“It almost takes a year pretty much to plan,” she said. “Even though we don’t put on or sponsor all the different events, we have to work with organizations, and sometimes that’s even more difficult because trying to get on the same page as other organizations is sometimes challenging.”

Homecoming Week began last Friday when Student Foundation handed out wooden Perunas to the different organizations to decorate. King and Queen candidates, totaling 30 this year, were also interviewed on Friday.

During the weekend, Good estimated that about 700 students participated in Community Service Day. Organizations also took part in Field Day on Sunday and painted the windows of businesses on Hillcrest Avenue and Mockingbird Lane.

Candidates were introduced Monday night, and students will be able to vote for their favorite candidate until Thursday. Wednesday evening, organizations gathered for the College Bowl trivia challenge.

All of these activities give participating organizations the chance to win spirit points, which will determine, in part, who becomes Homecoming King and Queen.

The Homecoming King and Queen will be crowned at halftime of the football game on Saturday.

Good said she’s particularly looking forward to seeing the floats this year.

“We told the organizations that we would get here at 8:30 to pick their theme, and organizations arrived at 5:45 in the morning, three hours before we even got here,” she said. “Since that point, everything has been extremely competitive. I can only imagine how big and incredible the floats are going to be. I’m really excited to see all them once they are completed.”