Change is coming to this year’s homecoming week as St. Thomas Activities and Recreation and other on-campus organizations do many of this week’s events differently.

Motorized floats

This year, STAR’s homecoming parade will see the return of motorized floats. Last year, motorized vehicles were prohibited from the parade due to the closure of parking Lot H on the northeast corner of Summit and Cretin avenues because of the Anderson Student Center construction. Lot H was used to dismantle floats after the parade but without a place “to safely disassemble without interrupting traffic,” STAR President Ashley Bailey said, the decision was made to exclude the motorized vehicles from 2010’s parade.

STAR programming interns Mo Berkowitz and Chris Petros said this exclusion led to a decrease in parade participation, dropping the 20-float average to 12. This year, STAR was able to find an alternative location for safe float dismantling on Finn Street putting parade participation back on track.

“(There is) definitely a pretty big difference from this year to last year,” Petros said.

STAR’s concern with motorized vehicles retuning to the parade is the safety of the audience and participants.

“The main concern when cars are involved is safety. Beyond that, there isn’t too much difference. Whether or not we have (motorized vehicles), students are still able to creatively express their Tommie pride,” Bailey said.

St. Thomas Public Safety and the St. Paul Police Department will also be present to monitor the parade.

Homecoming sweatshirts

STAR also introduced a new online ticketing method for distributing homecoming sweatshirts this year. Seniors Molly Daugherty and Sarah Will said the process was smooth.

“It’s less chaos,” Will said.

“(In) previous years, it would be like a giant stampede of people running to get their sizes,” Daugherty said. “You’re guaranteed your size so it’s not a big deal, and it’s much more mellow.”

Freshman Lauren Wonus said the online ticketing method reduced the wait time.

“We were barely in the line,” Wonus said.

While STAR used the online ticketing program universitytickets.com for other events last spring, this was the first year the program was used for the homecoming sweatshirts.

“We felt it would be more efficient if we used them for the sweatshirts,” Berkowitz said.

Bailey added that the ticketing process also made it easier for STAR to “ensure that the maximum number of students are able to receive a sweatshirt.”

STAR will be giving away 2,500 sweatshirts this year, and for the first time offering two options: a pullover or zip-up sweatshirt.

Expanding sale of alcohol

The university will also sell alcoholic beverages before Saturday’s football game. Doug Hennes, vice president of university and government relations, said a permanent liquor license for St. Thomas is in the works. Two public hearings held Sept. 30 and Oct. 6 recommended that the university be allowed the license but under certain conditions. This license will not be decided on until the St. Paul Legislation votes in November.

Until then, St. Thomas will use caterer Complete Beverage Services, which is in charge of obtaining the liquor license for this year’s homecoming game. Beer will be sold to of-age game goers on the John P. Monahan Plaza Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The football game starts at 1:10 p.m.

“It’s a fun place to be. It’s a beautiful place. They have food and pop out there, and they have beer in a certain area,” Hennes said. “It’s great to get people who come onto campus before a game and have a little party. It’s not tailgating so to speak because they’re not bringing in their own food and beverages. It’s our party on the plaza. In fact, it’s called Purple on the Plaza.”

Purple on the Plaza, which got its start this year by St. Thomas’ Dining Services for all home football games, will also be making its first appearance at homecoming alongside traditional Taste of Saints. Taste of Saints was held in the Upper Quad last year due to construction, but both events will take over the Lower Quad Saturday.

“It’s really an expansion of what we’ve always done at homecoming,” Hennes said. “At homecoming, we’ve always had an area where somebody can buy a beer, as well as all the food that student groups sell. We’re just expanding that.”

Bleachers

Another new aspect to the homecoming football game is the extra bleachers from the Tommie-Johnnie football game. Hennes said another recd-breaking crowd is not expected for this weekend, just an average homecoming crowd of 4,000 to 5,000.

Briggs LeSavage can be reached at lesa4364@stthomas.edu.