The Entire HU Homecoming Experience

As a third year student, Homecoming has become mainly about seeing old friends and having family visit rather than scoping out celebrities and spending hundreds on tickets, outfits and alcohol for the week. I did attend Midnight Madness however, which happened to end early because of fights. This is also what Homecoming as grown to become; violent that harms the student body.

During the week of and the week following Homecoming, there were 5 separate incidents in which people were stabbed, shot or held at gun point. The week after Homecoming, when I was sick at home, I heard sirens 4 individual times in one day. In my own building my neighbours were held at gun point and robbed of thousands of dollars in valuable items.

There was a saying going around that, "the locals [were] going crazy". All of these crimes were committed during the day, which is extremely disturbing to me. But what I will never understand is why HU is allowed to host this week of events, without added security or monitoring, and the Caribbean Carnival is threatened annually because of its "increased crime enabling" tendencies. Vendors stand outside of Subway with "perfume" that are actually harmful toxins used to rob students, not to mention the gang activity happening right by the McDonalds. An event that was always supposed to bring the university together, promote school pride and explore DC's unique attractions has become associated with mindless killings and bold faced robberies. It's not even safe on our campus!