Although the residence halls’ Homecoming team, the Romans, did not reach all of its initial goals this year, it has begun the tradition of dorms participating in Homecoming, team members said.

This is the first year the Inter-Residence Hall Association has worked together to form a Homecoming team. Andy Walling, organizer and co-chair of the team, said their purpose was “to make Homecoming a campus-wide event.”

Team members built a banner, painted a store-front window, participated in the blood drive and competed in most of the tournaments, he said.

“It was a foot-in-the-door event for us,” said Walling, sophomore in pre-business. “Although it was not ideal, we put something forward for others to build off of in the future.”

The team faced many challenges, including getting people to participate in the events, he said.

“The biggest problem was loss of numbers,” Walling said. The team began with more than 70 participants, but after the excitement died down, a significant proportion stopped coming to the meetings.

“It’s discouraging and not nearly what we had expected,” said Jenny Larson, co-chair for the Romans. “With 8,000 people living in the dorms, we thought for sure that we’d have large numbers.”

The co-chairs said the low turnout partially was due to a lack of experience. They didn’t really know what to expect nor what kind of commitment it would be, they said.

Larson, sophomore in genetics, said many students didn’t care or didn’t have time to participate because of prior commitments.

Having to drop out of the Yell-Like-Hell competition was one of the greatest disappointments, the team members said. The Yell-Like-Hell team was made up of 12 to 24 members who practiced nightly for two months, Larson said. Two weeks before first cuts, the co-chairs made the decision to drop out.

“A lot of people knew it was coming, and some were definitely saddened,” she said. “Yet most realized there was no chance of competing and were sort of relieved.”

The group was unable to participate in the lawn-display competition due to the terms and conditions of the ISU residence halls.

To make up for the lost points, the co-chairs planned to do community service work, but with participation dwindling and time running out, they decided to disassociate the work from Homecoming and do it later in the semester, Larson said.

Homecoming Central Display Coordinator Steve Bertling said he saw the numerous obstacles the Romans faced.

“They didn’t even really have a place to work on their banner,” he said. Bertling, senior in chemical engineering, congratulated the team on its hard work and dedication.

Homecoming Central openly encouraged the dorm floor to participate and was “overjoyed that they came,” Bertling said. He said he expects their participation will grow in the future.

“I really hope that they will come to us with their ideas for future years,” Bertling said. “We’re more than willing to work with them to enable them to succeed.”

With this year’s experience, the residence hall Homecoming team’s co-chairs have numerous changes they wish to make for the upcoming years’ teams.

Hilary Johnson, coordinator for the Romans’ tournament teams, said next year the team will have experienced leaders who will get the team started earlier so the “chores” can be divided more evenly. Better communication with Homecoming Central and within the team also might help keep enthusiasm up, said Johnson, freshman in animal ecology.

Walling said that in the future, he would like to pair the IRHA team with the greek houses. He currently is working with the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council and the Veishea committee to begin the pairings this spring for Veishea and next fall’s Homecoming.

“I think it will be excellent to get greek houses and residents of the dorms working side by side,” Walling said.

Ron Miller, Homecoming co-chair for Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, 218 Ash Ave., said he thinks that’s a really good idea.

“Hopefully their involvement will grow even larger in the future,” said Miller, senior in industrial engineering.