Annually at Illinois Tech, there
are two main departments that work
together to program events for the week,
long Homecoming celebration The first is
the Office of Campus life, which focuses
mostly on weekday events for students,
many of which are coeplanned by Union
Board This year includes a movie screening,
a Hawks Coflreehouse event, a Scavenger
Hunt, Laser Tag, and the Homecoming
Carnival on Saturday The other department,
the Office of Institutional Advancement and
Alumni Relations, is in charge of the actual
Homecoming events for alumni that take place
over the weekend such as the Young Alumni
Reception, the 50th Reunion Breakfast with
President Alan W Cramb, the Golden Society
Reunion, the AlleAlLLmni Party and Spirit Day
celebration, and the 25th Reunion Gathering

In addition to these separate events,

Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

Faculty, staff, students prepare for Homecoming 2016

Olumurewa Oguntade
TECH NEWS WRITER

in the celebration of Homecoming at Illinois
Tech, there are a few events that unite both
students and alumni, ranging from general
admission events to exclusive events, which
require preregistrationi

The mo st noteworthy, consideringits
status as a recent addition and its accessibility
to the most students, is the ‘Open Houses and
Tours’ event, scheduled to take place from 3:30
to 4:45 pimi on Saturday Alumni willbe shown
around the various schools on campus, their
respective facilities, and will be briefed on the
college’s history at the Galvin Library Archives
This provides them the opportunity to learn
about the latest happenings in the colleges,
their curriculum and facility developments,
and may provide them the chance to view
student work For students, it will be an
opportunity to network with professionals
in their respective fields, and since this year’s
homecoming includes the celebration of the
1st Reunion of the Class of 20157another
recent addition to the programithere is the
possibility that these professionals will be old

friends and classmates

Also providing room for alumni and
student interaction, though on smaller scales,
are the events hosted by alumni afiinity groups
These include the Leadership Academy
Gathering, the Camras Scholars Reception, the
School of Applied Technology Fall Barbecue,
the Reunion and Greek Life Berbecue and the
African American Alumni Association (4As)
Gathering While the first three are restricted
to current members and their alumni only, the
others are not

In addition to formal events, various
social and sporting activities are open to
attendance by all students and alumni Among
these are the open hours at the Bog, the
Women’s Volleyball Game on Friday, the Men’s
Soccer game and the Women’s Volleyball Trie
Matches on Saturday Even the traditionally
studenttargeted Homecoming Carnival will
feature alumni presence at the Spirit Day
prize wheel from 416me The Second Annual
Spirit Day celebration also features a ‘Show
your Spirit’ Photo Contest where students

tech newsiit.com

OPINION 2-3

CAMPUS 3-5
ABE 1

SGA 8-9
SLIPSTICK 10
SPORTS 11

and alumni get to view and vote on submitted
photos; the contest began yesterday and runs
daily through to Saturday, September 171
Though Homecoming is generally
meant to celebrate the return of alumni,
students have a higher possibility of
participation this year due to the coinciding
class of2015 reunioni The class of2015 reunion
means that there is a greater chance of being
invited as a guest to accompany an alumni
friend to some exclusive eventsi Kellie Fields,
Director of Alumni Relations, encourages
students to engage with alumni to any degree
they cant She says: “The number one thing I’d
encourage students to do is to stop and talk
to alumni, because they love that They like
to know what the students are doing and how
things have changed since their time here”

For detailed information about homecoming
events, visit the Alumni page on the Illinois
Tech website

Carving right through campus, the 315t street bus is back

Soren Spicknall
COPY EDITOR

Prior to 1997, residents of
some of Chicago’s most culturally distinct
neighborhoods were connected by the 31st
Street bus, a route that started way out west in
Little Village, made its way through Bridgeport
and the southern edge of Chinatown, and
eventually terminated here in Bronzeville
As some of those neighborhoods fell out of
fashion during the golden years of America’s
love affair with suburbia, economic decline set
in, and ridership had dropped so low that the
Chicago Transit Board (the legislative body of
the Chicago Transit Authority) voted to close
the struggling router

Since the very moment of the
closure announcement, activists from across
31st Street corridor neighborhoods have
been attempting to lobby the city to restore

I

 

 

the #31 bus route For more than ten years,
their calls went without response, but after
gathering some data which showed potential
for increased ridership, the CTA piloted a
program in 2012 to extend the 35th Street bus
up to 31st street for a portion of its route, with
the stated intention of using it as a template for
further reeestablishment of bus infrastructure
along 31st At the time, that pilot program was
a point of frustration for most activists, since
it only covered a small portion of the old #31
route and did little to connect the vast majority
of those who could ride the old router

Though the 2012 pilot program
largely disappointed those pushing for the ref
establishment of the 31st street route rather
than placating them, it had the unplanned
eflrect of vastly increasing their numbers and
organization Teaming up with a similar
eflrort to bring back an axed portion of the
#11 Lincoln Avenue route on the north side,

  

 

a coalition of neighborhood organizations
stretching from as far south as Jackson Park
and as far west as Little Village rallied around
the concept of a much larger pilot route for the
#31 bus, andstartinglast week, those cries were
oflicially answered Following a November
2015 decision by the Chicago Transit Board,
a route was constructed stretching from the
westernmost edge of Bridgeport over to King
Drive here in Bronzeville, connecting two
communities historically isolated from each
other once more with expanded public transit
infrastructure

Though the pilot program (which
is scheduled to run for 6 months to assess the
feasibility of making the route permanent once
again) is a huge step forward for the CTA31 /
CTA11 Crosstown Bus Coalition, it includes a
number of route compromises that have drawn
criticism, leading some activists to claim the
route is “set up to fail’i Specifically, the route

doesn’t run past 7PM, buses make a detour to
35th along Wentworth Avenue and State Street
(meant to pick up customers connecting from
the red and green line stations there), and
the 31 terminates before reaching 31st Street
Beach, a destination for many Bridgeport
and Bronzeville residentsl Proponents of the
current route argue that ridership would be
much lower without the L station connections,
and that the cool season trial period of the bus
route means that a terminus at the beach would
only end up costing the CTA more money and
make its overall return on investment look
worse on paper

Only time will tell whether the route
will succeed, but for now, if you find yourself
headed over to Bridgeport, consider hopping
on awestbound #31 bus to see ifit’s worth your
while You can find more information about
the route at transitchicagoicom/31pilot

  

Photos courtay of The Bridgeport Alliance