Earlier this month, Dexter Overall, the new director of Student Engagement, revealed some plans for Homecoming. One of them is a Homecoming Court. This is the first year a Homecoming Court will come to Siena.

“Due to student feedback, I learned a lot of students were excited about Halo Fest, but there wasn’t as much excitement around the student side of Homecoming,” Overall said. “One of my goals was to keep that student excitement going so students can look forward to Homecoming and Halo Fest. Looking at Homecoming here and traditionally what happens at other college campuses for Homecoming, one of the things I noticed was that there wasn’t a crowning of Homecoming royalty. So Homecoming Court was one of the newer things I wanted to bring to the week, and it’s gotten some great feedback and interest from students as well.”

With this being the first court, the process of running for king and queen is not as simple as it was for someone running in high school. Overall explained the process so that things can go smoothly and be fair for everyone.

“In the first year there’s about 15 people, and in order to be crowned king and queen there’s a process,” he said. “There’s an application process and there are requirements and those accepted from their applications will go through an interview phase where they will be interviewed by faculty, staff, members of administration, and alumni. After the interview process, finalists will be picked and students will have the opportunity to choose whose crowned king and queen.”

With Homecoming Court being new, some people would wonder where and when exactly all of these things will take place. Siena Heights has never done this before, so Overall is coming up with some things involving the Homecoming football game.

“So currently we’re hoping to crown them sometime during gameday,” he said. “We’re still working on when during game day. Whether if it’s at the student engagement tailgate or if it’s at any of the tailgates or if we announce it via social media. …We’re still working out where to crown them, but it will be on gameday. Where and how is still in the process.”

After the king and queen are crowned, Overall said he is expecting the two to be mission-driven and to host a variety of events around campus to engage the community.