Southeast's annual Homecoming will offer a variety of events

For Jay Wolz, Southeast Missouri State University director of alumni relations, homecoming has been a tradition since 1973.

"My first homecoming at Southeast was 40 years ago this month, but that was as a student," Wolz said, adding this is his second as an employee. "I was a freshman in 1973 and my big exposure to Homecoming back then was as a member of the marching band, and the parade got rained out that year."

Homecoming activities start Monday, but the first public activities begin Thursday with the rededication of Academic Hall and tours scheduled for that evening. Events run through Oct. 30.

"We always say that homecoming is bigger and better than the previous year," Wolz said. "This year it will definitely be that way, what with the buzz around the reopening of Academic. I haven't even been inside it yet to see what it's like," but he expects to do a walk-through next week.

Jane Stacy, who was director of alumni services for nearly 30 years, said she inherited a Homecoming steering committee from Hattie Eicholtz, who had been director of alumni services.

"I think that we wanted to make it a reach-out, not only to the students, but to the community ... I was from Charleston, so I was a small-town girl. We wanted to make the homecoming parade one of the outstanding parades in Southeast Missouri," Stacy said.

"My first parade in 1973, I had just worked like a dog," she said. "We had just made all these changes, and the parade was rained out the only time it was rained out. There was no way we could field a parade."

But that experience taught Stacy, who later became director of development, to multitask.

"I just thought, 'You know, I'm not in charge of weather.' I've got to be able to focus where the parade is not the only thing people come to. I have to always include a program where people can come to something else that the rain will not threaten in any way. That taught me to always diversify and have something for everyone ..." she said.

And modern-day homecomings do offer a variety of events to which thousands are expected to return to the university to participate. Academic Hall will be one of the main attractions.

Completed in 1905, the building was closed for two years for $22.8 million in renovations financed in part by a $53.3 million campuswide bond project. The Southeast board of regents in December 2010 approved a resolution to issue the bonds for facility renovations and repair projects and a phased-in $5-per-credit-hour fee increase to fund payments on the bonds.

The bonds also funded $17.9 million for renovations, an addition to Magill Hall and the university science laboratories; $10.6 million for deferred maintenance projects spanning five years, including a renovation of Memorial Hall that has been used for transition space; and $6.9 million for converting the campus power plant to natural gas, News Bureau director Ann Hayes said in an email.

Wolz said he was "kind of anxious" to see the dome area again because he wrote his signature on it when he was a student.

Along with the updated hall, another special aspect of the hall's reopening is introduction to speech classes will be in the building. When he was in school, only business students had classes there, because that's where the department of business was.

"The idea is so every student has an Academic Hall experience. For most of them, it's going to be a classroom experience," Wolz said.

Because there is little parking around Academic Hall, Wolz is encouraging people to park at the Show Me Center and take shuttles to the activities Thursday and Oct. 25 at the hall.

Wolz is involved in many of the activities planned for next week, but a number are led by Student Life or the Student Activities Council. This year's theme is "Honoring Tradition -- Inspiring Success."

The parade is adapted to that theme, so the 120 entries will be decorated by decade. The parade starts at Capaha Park, continues east on Broadway to Main Street, turns right on Main, heads south on Main for a couple of blocks, and ends up at Main and Independence streets.

Although he's involved in the parade, most of Wolz's responsibilities come with the alumni and faculty awards Friday night, which have been moved to the auditorium in Academic Hall, plus some activities with tailgating and reunions, Wolz said.

He also is involved in the Diamond Club Reception after the football game Oct. 26, which is for graduates who are 70 and older.

The alumni breakfast, Diamond Club Reception and things such as the 1963 class reunion take four or five months to plan. But planning for some aspects of Homecoming 2014 will start almost immediately after the 2013 edition is over, he said.

"So it's almost a year-round" thing, Wolz said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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