Homecoming royalty reveal takes different approach

Instead, the top 10 king and queen candidates were announced on a live stream at 6 p.m. Sept. 21. In the past, couples from each campus organization dressed up in themed costumes as they waited to hear the top 10 candidates announced. 

Marissa Olson, Homecoming royalty chair, said the committee wanted to make this a big deal and reach more students than they could fit in Pruis Hall. 

“Since we had a videographer this year, we really wanted to use that to our full potential,” Olson said.

While people weren’t physically in the same room watching the reveal happen, it doesn’t mean that this event wasn’t a success, Olson said. The reveal broadcast reached a total of 759 different devices. Pruis can hold about 640 people. 

“This number is still exceeding Pruis Hall’s seating capacity from last years' reveal show,” Olson said. “Many candidates have notified several Homecoming Steering Committee members that they threw viewing parties on their floors and off-campus housing complexes.”

While the number of people watching the royalty reveal was up from last year, the number of voters was down. There were 4,026 votes this year compared to around 5,000 votes last year, Olson said. 

In the reveal video, the top 10 king and queen candidates still kept the enthusiasm seen in past years when they did it in person.

Bernadette Ajamie, who represents Dance Marathon, said she would like to be queen to give a voice to the organization. 

“[I want to] educate the students on what Dance Marathon really is and not only how it benefits Ball State, but more specifically Riley Hospital for children,” Ajamie said.

Overall, the event impacted far more people with this new innovative way of doing the reveal than any other seating facility on campus, besides Scheumann Stadium, Olson said. 

“The live stream Royalty Reveal might be something that the next Royalty Chair does, but I wanted to do something completely different,” Olson said.

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