Hadley Hitson
With Oxford’s continued mask mandate and restrictions on in-person gatherings on campus, the University of Mississippi’s 2020 Homecoming Week has become a reminder of all the ways the world has changed. Instead of its usual daily events, floats and celebrations, the Student Activities Association has worked through COVID-19 restrictions and safety measures to plan a week of new activities and events for students while preserving as many traditions as possible.
“That’s always been our big picture goal: getting people to come,” SAA director Trevor Davis said. “But now, we have to make sure we only have the certain numbers of people at each event at a time, so we’re making sure we find events that we can do that sort of thing with.”
The main Homecoming tradition that SAA had to adapt because of pandemic restrictions was the Homecoming Parade. Instead of decorating floats to drive around Oxford and wave at community members, student organizations decorated 8-by-10 wooden boards that are displayed in the Grove.
“We were upset about (not having the parade), but we completely understand that you really don’t need people gathering on the sidewalk,” SAA Homecoming co-director Ian Pigg said. “That was a tradition that we didn’t really know where we were going to go with, but we tried to innovate.”
All of the “stationary floats” are decorated in accordance with the 2020 Homecoming theme: Lane, Trains and Automobiles.
“Usually, the theme just comes from brainstorming sessions,” Pigg said. “This year, when we came up with Lane, Trains and Automobiles, it just kind of stuck. We’re really excited to celebrate a new era of Ole Miss football and to celebrate what still makes Ole Miss really good.”
As far as following COVID-19 guidelines while hosting events, Davis said the organization used Welcome Week as a trial run, and he feels much more confident about being able to safely host events now.
“Sanitation was a big thing, and just making sure all of our bases are covered is something we wanted to make sure we had,” Davis said. “In between Welcome Week and Homecoming Week we did committee selection. Now we have our full staff of around 120 people, so it’s been a lot more hands on deck as far as keeping everything safe.”
Thus far, SAA has offered goodie bag giveaways, jousting at the newly named Gertrude C. Ford Student Union, double decker bus tours around Oxford, laser tag in the Grove, lawn games with the Homecoming Court and the newer tradition of Ole Miss Idol.
“All of our events are open air during homecoming week, which we think is a really good safety method,” Pigg said. “Also, most of them are limited capacity — come and go — and the lines are all socially distanced.”
Today, SAA will have bumper cars on the Grove-side of the union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and students can register to attend the drive-in movie showing of “The Blind Side” in the Oxford Film Fest Lot at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The Homecoming Court will also take a “court-exclusive” double decker tour around Oxford on Thursday at 5 p.m.
On Friday, the final SAA celebration before Saturday’s football game against the Auburn Tigers is a photobooth and cookies in front of the union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
