By Elianna Novitch | [email protected]

The University of Iowa Homecoming Executive Council on Tuesday hosted a focus group aiming to make Homecoming more inclusive for the entire community.

The council invited members of the UI community to engage in a conversation about Homecoming 2017, which will take place the week of Oct. 1-7, and to give perspectives and feedback on how the council could do a better job of engaging with all members of the community.

“The idea came to do a series of focus groups starting off early [in the year] to hear what people think about Homecoming and to build that up so that the actual week of Homecoming is that manifestation of what we want it to be and what everyone else wants as well,” said Devin Francis, the multicultural initiatives director for the Homecoming Council.

The council plans to host more focus groups to continue the conversation on how to make Homecoming more inclusive for all.

“Homecoming is seen as very greek, and while we don’t want to diminish that greek life is very important on our campus, we also want to be more inclusive of other groups,” said Rachel Green, the marketing director for Homecoming Council.

The goal of Homecoming is to have a week in which the campus and community celebrate being Hawkeyes.

A variety of activities are planned for the week including an outdoor movie, the Shout dance event, the Homecoming parade, and a concert.

“Homecoming is so large that it can sometimes seem like an abstract idea to people, when really, if you think about Homecoming, it should be the most inclusive thing happening on campus because not only are we reaching out to students, we are reaching out community members, we’re reaching out to alumni,” Francis said.

Some ideas discussed at the focus group included inclusion in Homecoming activities such as the “Shout” dance event, which is currently dominated by the greek community, reaching out to different student organizations and minority groups on campus, and making people aware of what Homecoming is.

UI student Apoorva Raikwar, who attended the focus group, said she thought Homecoming was a great event that is meant to bring together all Hawkeyes, and the purpose of the focus group was to find ways to include communities that normally aren’t as invited to participate.

“I really wanted to have a voice in what we can do to be inclusive to underrepresented minority groups on campus,” Raikwar said. “Diversity and inclusiveness is not just beneficial for, quote-on-quote, “diverse” groups, it’s beneficial for everyone.”

Francis said the focus group provided good insight and takeaways.

“[The takeaway I have from tonight’s focus group is] that the problem does not lie in people wanting to participate,” Francis said. “It’s about getting information out, and how we are getting it out there most efficiently, [and] how do we just let people know that they are wanted and make them feel wanted.”