That ain’t right

After less than a business working week, it requires an entire staff’s efforts to remember what happened during Homecoming Week. Mind you, we didn’t attend everything as a whole, but after hearing the same jokes again and again, we knew that the events after the comedy show would leave everyone in the audience wanting something.
 
That something, we’ve concluded, is fun.
Homecoming, to us, is a time for undergraduates to reunite with returning alumni and enjoy the festivities provided by the people they’ve elected to represent them. We aren’t sure what’s sadder—the events themselves, or the fact that over the years, we have come to expect mediocrity.
While we are aware that there are financial issues, there is no excuse for arguing, throwing others under the bus, or less than quality work. We seem to forget that Southern University refuses to tap into the homegrown talent that we have in past SGA president David Banner. Regardless of what the Administration thinks of Banner, he is a graduate of Southern University and he is a celebrity. If the man wants to come for free and bring a few other celebrity friends, let him! That means more money in our pocket for funny comedians. Not ones who disrespect Miss Southern and her court, or whose routines we’ve heard a million times before.
We could take a page out of the books of Monday’s comedians and repeat a commonly heard joke: what can we say about the comedy show that hasn’t already been said about Iraq? It’s been bombed more times than we can count.
While some students may have actually enjoyed it, it’s probably for one of two reasons; they are freshmen or they watch too much BET regularly. When it came to the comedy show, it was filled with the stereotypical jokes that made the audience chuckle for a few minutes, but dragged on too long and made everyone uncomfortable. Something is wrong when majority of the jokes lead most to believe that yes, black comedy is slowly dying—if it hasn’t died already.
We do not NEED to wait until next year or the day before the Big Game for a Homecoming t-shirt, that should have been given more thought during it’s design phase.
We have been told continuously that Southern students deserve the best, yet it seems we are the last priority.
Since 2004, the Southern Homecoming Experience has been the biggest downhill disaster we’ve ever had to witness.
Now, to complain without solutions would be out of character for the editorial board of The Southern DIGEST. Perhaps the budget and seemingly interesting artists should be taken into account. The matter of politics shouldn’t matter in a time like this—get a stable budget, one that can assure at least one good person, one good show, or one good event—and not the continued use of the hometown, backyard hero year after year.
As students, seeing those in leadership bicker over events, and hear someone place blame for the lack of success on any event BEFORE said event has taken place, we tend to lose confidence in both parties. We know that perfection is impossible, but give us the benefit of stating and seeing the imperfections—don’t give us a magnifying glass and a direct line should something go wrong. Even in the event of the impending recession, the flavor, hospitality and uniqueness of Southern University should go without saying during Homecoming. It is our hope that generations after us can say, “That’s my school!” instead of mimicking Chris Rock’s famous tagline in “Head of State:” That ain’t right!