The Pep Rally for Homecoming 2005 featured a Battle of the Bands competition instead of the traditional bonfire-and the event turned out to be a disaster.

We don’t want to keep beating a dead horse-Homecoming is over, and there is nothing to be done about it now. But next year’s planners need to take a lesson from the failures of this year and improve the events. While event organizers in the Associated Students of the University of Utah and the Residence Halls Association should be commended for coming up with an alternative activity once they realized a bonfire would no longer be allowed, it seems that too many of the events during the week were thrown together haphazardly.

Battle of the Bands was so poorly organized that spectators left before half of the bands had played, bands went on an hour after they were scheduled to perform, and the groups have still not been paid for their performances. Furthermore, at least one of the bands on the program has not even been contacted and informed when to expect their money.

What sort of representation of the U does that present?

Dylan McDonnell, president of RHA, says that the bands have not yet been paid due to logistics and will soon receive their money. It’s good that event planners are trying to rectify the situation, but why did it take so long in the first place?

Homecoming is not something that can be planned in a week. It is something that needs to be either done properly or done away with.

It’s nice that organizers tried to do something new this year, but a combination of problems-poor advertising, logistics in the program, planning, a remote location at Ballif Field, among others-led to small attendance and participation in the event. Ultimately, participation is the marker by which the success of such an event is evaluated.

Student leaders need to accept responsibility for what went wrong during the Pep Rally and get these bands the money as soon as possible. It’s only after organizers stop playing Pollyanna and start admitting what went wrong that we can start planning successful events for the future.

Face it: Homecoming is not meant to be a learning experience for student leaders. It’s meant to be Homecoming, and it’s meant to be successful. Next year, let’s hope that student leaders can put something together beforehand that will be a success-and not something that can just be a lesson for Homecoming 2007.