Homecoming big success, dance wraps up big week

Nearly 350 students piled into the River East Art Center to enjoy food, dancing and to see which of their peers would be elected king and queen at last Friday’s Homecoming Dance.

With buses departing from the Wabash Building starting at 8 p.m. and continuing every half hour, groups of students consistently arrived at the center decked out in dresses and suits. Tickets were sold at the doors for any students who were late on purchasing their tickets but still wanted in on the festivities.

The event was organized by the university activities board, Students Programming for Enrichment, Enlightenment, and Development.

“People had fun and that’s really what we’re here to do, is give people a good time. I think it was a success,” Nicole Lambert, SPEED Addicts coordinator, said. “The goal of tonight was to have good, safe, clean fun and really give the students of Roosevelt just a place where they can come and enjoy themselves.”

Students enjoyed a live DJ while hitting the dance floors, illuminated with multicolored lights. There were five candidates for Homecoming king and four for queen.

More than 700 students voted, and, by the end of the night, Gail Concepcion and Andrew Jones were crowned king and queen to roars of applause from their hundreds of ecstatic peers.

Concepcion, an integrated marketing communications major, ran for the first time this year after working for SPEED last year. She said that after doing the behind-the-scenes work for events like Homecoming in the past, she wanted to step out of her comfort zone and run for the title.

“I literally cannot believe it,” said Concepcion. “I was up against so many amazing individuals here at Roosevelt University and, competition, I could tell was going to be tight and tough and fierce. I am just so honored and so happy to have such a great support system.”

Jones, social justice and communications major, decided to take a different approach during his first time running when it came to campaigning. Living in the Wabash Building, Jones relied heavily on word of mouth to campaign.

“I’m just happy. I’m a very social person, I like meeting new people and just talking to people,” Jones said. “I thought it was a good opportunity to just meet new people and get my network bigger. I like helping people out, I like making people happy and making people smile, so I thought this would be something cool to do.”

Jones said that he personally doesn’t like getting handed flyers or bombarded with information, which is why he decided to run his campaign differently.

“I’m not going to annoy them with flyers, I’m not going to invite them to a Facebook page to like; I’m just going to tell them to vote for me...and it obviously worked,” he said.

After the announcement of king and queen, students were able to make use of the dance floor for another hour before the first buses arrived around midnight to transport everyone safely back to Wabash.

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