Maverick Community Launches Homecoming Week Celebration

November marks the beginning of an important tradition in Maverick country: homecoming week. The University of Texas at Arlington is located southwest of Downtown Arlington and provides numerous cost-free ways for UT Arlington students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to participate in the festivities the week of Nov. 7.

Downtown Arlington has initiated a paint the town blue challenge, which will be a competition between local businesses to display the most maverick spirit. You can have a voice in who is selected as the winner by voting through social media.

One of the biggest celebrations during the seven days will be the homecoming parade on Nov. 14. Student organizations will pack the streets surrounding the center point of homecoming, College Park District, in a procession of lights, cheers and Maverick pride before the basketball game that evening.

What UT Arlington Mavericks want most is the community’s support for the campus during this annual spirited week.

“I think as we change, the main difference between a commuter school and a traditional school is that with traditional schools the town is about the school, but for commuter schools it’s more like the school is just in the town,” Dahlia Muana, a junior UT Arlington student said.

This will be Muana’s first year participating directly in UT Arlington’s homecoming parade since her first days as a freshman spectator viewing the events that surrounded her Spaniolo Drive on-campus apartment.

Homecoming week will include events like the street festival Muana attended her initial year at UT Arlington as well as a 5k run, a step show performance, a parade, men’s and women’s basketball games and more.

Muana believes that because this city has an institution like UT Arlington, that even if community members are not students, locals should feel like this is their school too.

A complete list of all activities can be found online through UT Arlington’s website. Which event(s) are you looking forward to going to the most?

Courtney Borchert is a journalism major and German minor at UT Arlington interested in public policy, data analysis and social justice issues.