Banners takeover SRC

Eighteen campus organizations will channel East Carolina University’s homecoming week theme of Pirate TV in the form of banner art with the top three winners competition being announced today.

Since yesterday, ECU students have been able to walk all around the Student Recreation Center to view banners from various chapters of ECU Greek life such as Pi Kappa Alpha and other student organizations such as ECU Ambassadors, who won the Spirit Cup during ECU’s 2016 Homecoming week.

The horizontally-formatted banners for this year’s competition must be designed with this year’s homecoming theme, “Pirate TV,” according to this year’s rules and guidelines for the homecoming events. Each banner was required to incorporate the ECU mascot in the form of PeeDee or a Skull and Crossbones design and the mascot or symbol for University of Central Florida, the college football team set to oppose the Pirates at this Saturday’s homecoming game.

The banners for this year’s competition were dropped off to be hung on Sunday afternoon and will be judged by a panel of judges, which includes ECU alumni and faculty members, tomorrow morning. The winners, according to ECU’s Assistant Director of Student Activities and Organizations Krista Wilhelm, will be announced at the end of the business day.

“The judges will be looking for creativity, originality, representation of ECU beating UCF and the week's theme of Pirate TV,” said Ayisha Ihtasham, chairperson for this year’s Homecoming Banner Competition sub-committee.

The top three banners will be labeled later today for everyone to see. Banners will remain hung up for the rest of homecoming week for students to observe and will be returned to the organizations Sunday afternoon, according to Ihtasham.

As is tradition, the top three winners of this year’s banner competition will earn points toward the Spirit Cup. The first place winning organization will earn 300 points and the second and third place winning organizations will earn 225 points and 150 points, respectively, according to the rules and guidelines for the 2018 ECU Homecoming Competition.

The banner competition is just one of five ways the participating organizations in this year’s homecoming competition can earn points toward the Spirit Cup. The other four ways being a parade float, skit night, the canned food drive and Cannonball. Last year’s top three winners of the banner competition were Alpha Omicron Pi & Delta Chi, Chi Omega & Pi Kappa Alpha and ECU Ambassadors & Sigma Nu.

In an effort to diversify the competition of homecoming week, the ECU 2018 Homecoming Committee has made efforts to incorporate new organizations such as Pi Lambda Phi and the ECU Residence Hall Association in this week’s themed festivities.

“I think it’s awesome that the ECU Homecoming Committee is open to welcoming all different organizations of any kind, no matter the size or origin,” said Nya Moten, a former representative of ECU Hall Government for Fletcher Hall. “Homecoming is different every year, so the organizations who participate in it might as well reflect the differences as well.”

The goal for the competition is to boost school spirit and to bring excitement from the organizations participating in the competition, according to members of the ECU 2018 Homecoming Skit sub-committee.

ECU freshman Autumn Davis said homecoming events, such as banner competition, will help students like herself to learn about the various organizations on campus she could get involved in.

“I can't wait for the banner competition so I can see what the organizations come up with,” Davis, a computer science major, said.

In order to participate in ECU’s Homecoming Competition next school year, organizations are asked to contact the ECU Homecoming Committee via OrgSync or email at ecuhomecoming@ecu.edu.