Blue Demon Week 2014 may be over but this new DePaul tradition is only beginning.
DePaul’s first Blue Demon Week took place Feb. 16-22 with events ranging from a dodge ball game and trivia night to the newly renamed Blue Demon Bash culminating in the Blue Demon Dance. This year, Homecoming underwent a massive overhaul as it was renamed Blue Demon Week in order to create more campus affinity and transform Homecoming into a DePaul-centered week instead of just a DePaul Activities Board (DAB) centered event, according to DAB President Simone Caron-Vera.
Blue Demon Week has been in the making for a while. Caron-Vera said that even before the official change, spearheaded by the Affinity Task Force, was made in 2013, 2011-2012 Homecoming Coordinator Brandon Davis was already working toward campus affinity while last year’s coordinator Lauren Eisentraut created more emphasis on the entire week not just the dance.
With all the changes, Blue Demon Week’s coordinators considered its inaugural year a success.
“I think Blue Demon Week did exactly what it was supposed to do, what we wanted it to do,” current Blue Demon Week coordinator Emma Kolander said. “I think we did a really effective job at communicating the change to the student body, mainly through the visual means and involving a lot of different departments and organizations. We did really try to make as much of a university side effort as possible.”
Blue Demon Week included the participation of 23 university offices. Faculty and staff were able to display their school pride by decorating their offices with blue and red balloons, streamers and a variety a posters about the week’s events.
With Homecoming transitioning into Blue Demon Week for the first time, there were expectedly some issues.
“Dance ticket sales were significantly lower than they had been in previous years,” Kolander said. “We didn’t sell out of our dance tickets. We were still selling them Friday at check in to get in.”
According to numbers from Caron- Vera and DAB, an estimated 1,200 people attended last year’s Homecoming dance. Only around 600 attended the first Blue Demon Dance.
Both leaders say a better job can be done of alerting students about the change, as many did not realize that Homecoming was now Blue Demon Week and that the dance was associated with it. Kolander also noted that students’ unfamiliarity with the Bridgeport Art Center might have contributed to lower attendance, but that the students in attendance enjoyed themselves with larger groups staying until the end.
Senior public relations major Maureen Ray has attended every homecoming dance and was present at the first Blue Demon Dance as a way to conclude her time at DePaul. She and her friends attended for nostalgic purposes and while she appreciated the venue, she did have a caveat of sorts.
“It was pretty but nothing compares to my freshman year at the Drake,” Ray said. “It was gorgeous and packed. It was more on par with a wedding reception than a dance.”
Michelle Rosales, a junior communications major and exchange student from Mexico City, was encouraged by friends to go and also heard about the event through social media.
“I really liked the Blue Demon (Dance), it was a different cultural experience for me, so I had a great time,” Rosales said. “I loved the place, the music and the food.”
Other people like senior digital cinema major Taylor Spence went to the main event, the men’s basketball game Saturday against Marquette University, saying it was “a whole lot of fun,” especially when the game went into overtime, even though the Blue Demons eventually lost 96- 94.
Blue Demon Week also included events for alumni who were encouraged to attend the basketball game if they were in Chicago or a game watch in one of several major cities if they were out of town. Soon-to-be alum Ray said her participation in future Blue Demon Weeks depends on her location.
“It depends on what I’m doing and where I am,” Ray said. “If I’m in Chicago, I’ll probably still be hanging out with my DePaul friends so I won’t [attend Blue Demon Week]. But if I move away, I’ll be more inclined to go to the game watches and connect with other DePaul alumni.”
While better communication of the week’s purpose will be on the agenda for next year, Kolander recognizes that between having two campuses, no football team and being infused in one of the world’s greatest cities, the DePaul experience differs greatly from that of a state school, which creates a different type of school spirit.
“We want to try to tap into what makes DePaul students tick and cater to that rather than trying to make school spirit something it’s never going to be at DePaul,” she said.
For Rosales, whose time at DePaul will end in June, the memory of Blue Demon Week 2014 will be a treasured reminder of what it means to be a Blue Demon.
“I really like that DePaul does these kinds of activities,” she said. “Maybe the students see it as something usual, but for me it is exciting to see how the university created this week to bring together the community.” had an amazing time.”