SUNY Buffalo State celebrated homecoming with the school’s annual pep rally Thursday in the Campbell Student Union Quad.

The event, which began at 12:15 p.m., featured a lip sync competition, dance performances and a chicken barbeque.

Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner was present and spoke at the event.

“It’s really exciting,” Conway-Turner said. “It’s great to hear all the energy out, to see all the performers and to see people raising their energy to celebrate a homecoming.”

“It’s a great turnout,” she added. “At first I was wondering, because it’s a little chilly out here, but people eventually got out.”

The homecoming events come in the wake of a recent on-campus crime spree that saw two robberies, a stabbing, and an attempted sexual assault.

Asked whether the events were a good way to boost student morale and campus unity after the crimes, Conway-Turner said, “Certainly, I think that it’s a good way for students to be reminded that this is a wonderful campus and a safe campus, and come out and enjoy the community.”

Conway-Turner also encouraged students “to really come out and enjoy everything over the homecoming weekend.”

“When I just look at the students who did their skits, obviously a lot of hours of work went in there, and I know that Sarah Velez has been really working with the students to get this event together, so they’ve been thinking about it for weeks and now it’s finally here and it’s real exciting, and even though it’s a little chillier than I’d like, it’s still a really nice day,” she said.

USG President Derek Jorden hosted the event.

“I believe that yes, crimes are really bad but one thing they do is, they bring people closer together,” Jorden, a senior journalism major, said. “They make us unify and build a body that we have to be together to fight whatever is coming against us. I mean, every bad thing that’s ever happened in history has always somehow brought unity to the place.”

“Keep the unity,” Jorden said. “Keep it together. Stay together and I think you know, together is hard to destroy us, but just keep the unity.”

Jorden explained that as part of putting together the event, USG worked on an annual homecoming committee, and “everyone took turns to do something.”

At the pep rally though, Jorden was not acting in his official role as USG president.

“I was asked to host the event as a host for my TV show, ‘The Front,’” Jorden said, referring to his program on the campus television station, BSC-TV. “So it was more of that, but as president it was like, oh, do both at the same time, you know, so it was fun, though. I loved it.”

USG threw shirts from the Campbell Student Union balcony down to the crowd, which became raucous as students fought to snatch the shirts from the air and from each other. Buffalo State student athletes also paraded past the stage, in a stream of orange and black outfits.

Angie Jimenez, a junior fashion merchandising major, is one of the members of the Buffalo State POM Dance Team which performed at the pep rally. She said this semester was the first time the dance team had performed at the event.

“We have practice two times a week, but since it’s like a pep rally, we usually have three hours of practice, just so we can get it all perfect and right,” Jimenez said. “And we have, sometimes, extra practices, too.”

“I think it’s pretty fun,” Ashley Steele, a sophomore journalism major, said. “I liked how they had little skits and little dance teams. I think that’s a good way to let everyone know what organizations are on campus.”

Winners of the various competitions are listed below:

Goosechase:

First Place: Crystal Smith
Second Place: Ruth Bontrager
Third Place: TBD

King and Queen:

King: Cory Fletcher
Queen: Britni Mignon

Float Competition:

Best Buddies

Banner Competition:

First Place: Chemistry Organization
Second Place: Alpha Epsilon Phi
Third Place: Zeta Chi Omega

Residence Hall Window Painting:

Best First  Year Hall- Porter – CD Bianca McGraw
Best Upperclass Hall-  Tower 1- CD Jocelyn Tejeda
Best Overall- Cassety Hall – CD Jarron Mortimer

Lip Sync:

Black Active Minds

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Melissa Burrowes can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]