October is homecoming month for University of Texas Permian Basin and it promises to be the biggest one ever in part to mark the university’s 50th anniversary.
Program Coordinator for Student Life Joshua Lujan said this year’s theme is the Flock Show and Rodeo. Highlights include a free concert by Aaron Watson at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Kirk Center field and the football game at 6 p.m. Oct. 28 at Astound Broadband Stadium in Midland.
Because this is the largest homecoming UTPB has had, they expect around 2,000 people to attend primarily for the parade, concert, bonfire and fireworks. Last year, they had about 550 attendees.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for people to come out. … The reason why we’re doing it so much bigger than we have in previous years is because this is our 50th anniversary. We’re celebrating our 50th year in existence. We’re going to celebrate our 50th class with this upcoming orientation season, so it’s a big deal, hence the giant celebration,” Lujan said.
The weeklong celebration will give people a chance to see what UTPB offers students and how the university makes their lives fun outside of going to class.
“Ultimately, you’re paying for a degree, but you’re paying for a college experience as well so we want to provide them a good one,” Lujan said.
The director of the Welcome Center is Logan Wilson. She sets up the campus tours, so if people are interested, they can call the main number at 432-550-2020 and ask for the Welcome Center.
He added that the campus comes alive nearly every day. Lujan earned a bachelor’s degree in music from UTPB and stared his job in June 2022.
“I was over orientation and oversaw that, so we just welcomed over 600 freshmen, which is really cool. … Now we’re dong student orgs, Campus Activities Board and homecoming and all the other fun stuff,” Lujan said.
Homecoming starts Oct. 22 for students with a window decorating contest, Lujan said.
“Every student organization that is competing for the trophy this year is going to come out on Sunday and do a window decorating contest,” Lujan said.
It’s like a spirit board, but without the board.
The homecoming kickoff luncheon, which Lujan said is open to the community, is from noon to 2 p.m. on the back patio of the Student Activity Center.
“But for the rest of the week, we have all kinds of things going on. The evening of that day (Oct. 23) is when our homecoming court is going to be presented. That’s going to be the first batch of candidates that are running for homecoming king and queen,” Lujan said. “That’s when they’re going to be presented. We’re going to find out who they are, what they’re about. They’ll talk about themselves for a little bit, and then we’ll just continue down the line. That’s where we’ll meet our first initial homecoming court.”
On Oct. 24, there will be a cowboy hat decorating contest, which goes along with the theme.
Oct. 25 is the annual Lip Sync Battle. Students will create a routine and dance number with their song. There will be guest judges, typically alumni from various graduating years.
“Those are the people that decide who wins the homecoming competitions and the … games that we have just to keep it fair,” Lujan said.
Oct. 26 is Nailed It, based on the Netflix series, which is a bake off competition.
The grand challenge this year is to make a cowboy hat cake.
“Those get judged by staff and faculty here and then we have our movie nights. This year we’re showing Barbie, so to stay in the realm of country we are going to have a costume contest with all the (organizations) that are competing for homecoming to see who can come dressed as the best cowboy-cowgirl Kens and Barbies from the movie. That’ll be fun. We’re looking forward to that because it was a very big hit this summer,” Lujan said.
Oct. 27 is the parade, concert and bonfire.
“This is open to the community, so that’s where we’re going to have our parade that we do every single year. That’s going to span from the Founders Building all the way through the library to the (D. Kirk Edwards Family Human Performance Center) and then ultimately end at the turf field, where we will kick off with Aaron Watson’s concert starting at 7:30, which is free and open to the community. It doesn’t cost anything. … We will have the entire field filled with things, so the concert’s going to start. There will be the availability to purchase alcohol for our community members. This is going to be cash only type of situation, so make sure you bring cash and then we will have food available for purchase for our community. Then we’ll have a student section where our students will be able to be in that venue as well where we have food provided for our students,” Lujan said.
The following night is the football game against Western Oregon University that starts at 6 p.m. at Astound Broadband Stadium in Midland.
“We’re hoping to win that game,” Lujan said.
Lujan said he is looking forward to homecoming week.
“It’s incredibly terrifying. But it’s also incredibly exciting. The reason I say terrifying is just because the scale of everything is just bigger. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve done it as a student, and I was doing homecoming committees when I was a student. I did homecoming last year and now this is the first year where I’m really spearheading things,” Lujan added.
Students are a part of the committee that are assigned to many of the events throughout the week and they create the budget for the event.
“Our students spearhead them. They come up with what we want to do. So for example, one of our students is over the Nailed It challenge so their task is and what they’ve been working on over the last few months is seeing what we can feasibly do. What I mean by that is what is the ability of students to make something; like could they make a boot cake? Could they make a cowboy cake … and what would be successful and something that we would get entertainment value because really that’s what the whole premise of it is about,” Lujan said.
Students create the budget for the event.
“While I lead the whole operation of homecoming, our students have a heavy hand in that mainly because our students program for students and they know what they want to do and what our students will think will be entertaining. It also helps develop the skills and being able to put things on resumes because what we really are ultimately aiming for is for students to be promotable, for our students to be hireable because it’s important. They’re here for their degree. Once they leave, they get a job. Those are things that are transferable skills that employers are looking for everywhere,” Lujan said.
Homecoming planning started in November of last year.
“All our decisions are data driven. It’s very important because that really bases what we do next year on; what was successful; what wasn’t successful. How much food did we order; how much was gone; those types of things, because those things matter because really, when you’re looking at the whole grand scheme of things, everything just costs money,” Lujan said.
“We’re always looking to make sure that we’re making the best decisions that we can possibly make with our student dollars. Looking at all of those things, we always have to have a debriefing … to … look back and see did we make the best of what we had and how can we make sure we make it better for the next year,” he added.
That’s always the goal, Lujan said.
“I hope that everybody comes out to the community events — the luncheon on Monday, and then the parade, concert bonfire. I hope a lot of people turn out because I think it’s going to be fun. It’s the biggest that we’ve ever had so we’re hoping to make it really big and the community will come out and enjoy it and hopefully they’ll want to come to UTPB and experience more of it,” he added.
Sophomore Trinity Anderson is on the homecoming committee and said she’s really looking forward to this year’s events. She also helped plan last year’s event.
“I’m not going to say this one’s the more important one, but I think it’ll be more memorable because of the 50th year. We’re bringing a bigger artist for our concert. We’re having more people speak, hopefully, and maybe more people will come out to the concert and the parade. … That’s what we’re gunning for,” Anderson said.
She added that she’s a planner.
“I like to have things planned, so getting to be a part of the planning is what I like the most. I get to see what goes on behind the scenes,” Anderson said.
Her major is business management.
“I’m hoping to go into businesses and help plan things, events, that type of thing, so hopefully this will help me,” Anderson said.
Homecoming Events
- Oct. 23: Homecoming Kick-off Luncheon, Open to the Community, noon to 2 p.m. on the Student Activity Center (SAC) Patio
- Oct. 23: Homecoming Court Presentation, 6 p.m., SAC
- Oct. 24: Cowboy Hat decorating, SAC
- Oct. 25: Lip Sync Battle, 7 p.m., SAC
- Oct. 26: Nailed It, 7 p.m. SAC; Barbie Movie Night, 9 p.m., Quad
- Oct. 27: Parade, Aaron Watson Concert, & Bonfire – Free and open to the community, 7-10 p.m., Kirk Turf Field
- Oct. 28: Homecoming Football Game & Coronation, 6 p.m. Kick-off, Astound Stadium in Midland
