This year, Homecoming Spirit Week did not make a splash as expected.  

As a tradition, Webb student government plans spirit weeks, where students dress up every day in themes assigned to earn points for their class before Theme Night and Homecoming dance take place.  

“The purpose of HoCo Spirit Week is for the community to be able to come together and break away from the normal routine, have a good time, and begin to get excited about a major school event that’s coming,” said Ken Rosenfeld, Dean of Student Campus Life.  

However, the reality fell short of expectations as fewer students engaged in HoCo Spirit Week compared to the former spirit weeks. Several reasons are behind this.  

The timing of HoCo Spirit Week occurred shortly after students returned from retreats and during the PSAT week. “We had this as a follow-up spirit week, but we only had about half the week because we came back from retreats and other activities. I think it may have caught the community off guard a little bit,” Mr. Rosenfeld said.  

The schedule of the school week was also unusual. 

“Since we had the testing day (PSAT) on Tuesday, people forgot about the spirit week, so not many people dressed up,” Ava Darby (25’) said.  

Additionally, compared to the past spirit weeks, HoCo Spirit Week lacked advertisement. Some were not even aware of the event.  

“I did not even know that it was sprit week until Thursday,” said Megan MacPhee, humanities department faculty. 

WSC and VWS executive presidents reflected on the issue of unscheduled check-ins and lack of support.  

“I feel like Spirit Week for Theme Night had more publicity compared to HoCo Spirit Week,” Annie Han (24’), VWS executive president, “It was just really confusing because some days we had check-ins, some days we didn’t.”   

“We didn’t advertise it properly enough and that was one of the reasons for lack of support and lack of awareness,” said Jonathan Rosales-Cardenas (24’), WSC executive president.  

Despite the challenges, the student government sees this as a valuable learning opportunity. They plan to apply these lessons moving forward, emphasizing improved communication and providing sufficient lead time for future events.  

“The participation was significantly lower for the HoCo Spirit Week than it was for the spirit weeks before,” Mr. Rosenfeld said. “But I’m feeling the next time that we do this, it’s going to go up high.”