The possibility of a strike among APSCUF faculty and coaches could potentially affect Slippery Rock University’s homecoming on Oct. 22.
Homecoming is a standard tradition at the majority of colleges, universities and high schools across the nation that unifies the institution’s current student body and alumni. Each year, it is standard for the school to select two upperclassmen, usually one male and one female, who are nominated and voted as the school’s homecoming “king and queen” for that school year.
It is a beloved tradition at many schools or colleges.
The Slippery Rock football team is scheduled to play Edinboro on Oct. 22 as the annual homecoming game. The potential faculty and/or coaches strike(s) could put this game in jeopardy. The faculty union has set a strike date of Oct. 19, three days before the SRU homecoming game. A faculty strike does not necessarily mean the coaches will go on strike as well, so each state school’s athletic teams would not lose their coaches.
However, each school’s athletic director is considered a part of the faculty, so they could all go on strike on Oct. 19. If the faculty strike was to happen on Oct. 19 and the Edinboro athletic director was to participate in the strike, then the Edinboro football team, coach and all, might not be able to travel to SRU on Oct. 22 to play in SRU’s homecoming game.
On the flip side, if the state system coaches were to strike and the faculty did not, then it is possible that neither the SRU or Edinboro football team would have coaches to coach the game. As of now, the coaches union has not set a strike date.
If the game was not able to be played as scheduled, SRU athletic director, Paul Lueken, said that the homecoming game would turn into a green and white scrimmage of just the Slippery Rock team going against itself. It would be both a unique and silly experience for the Slippery Rock football players, students and alumni. In fact, if Edinboro does cancel the game by not coming, it would probably be best to have no game at all. Instead, they should just have the homecoming parade and then announce the homecoming king and queen in Morrow Field House. A “replacement” game against ourselves would surely be one the dullest homecoming experiences imaginable.
Losing an entire homecoming would be very disappointing, and would put a damper on SRU students’ fall semester. Sure, a lot of people don’t come out to watch Slippery Rock football games, and the ones who do usually won’t stick around past halftime, but there is something special about going to homecoming and being a part of all of the festivities homecoming weekend has to offer.
