Shake, shake, shake, psssss. Shake, shake, pssss.

The air outside the student center patio smells strongly of paint as students decorate their team banners for homecoming.

This year’s theme “Out of this World” was chosen to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Each team took their own spin on the theme for the banner competition. There were 37 teams total according to Melissa Ulmer, the homecoming co-chair, who organized the event with Nicole Kides and Kayla Raparelli. 

“It’s one of Rowan’s biggest traditions. Last year we had to move inside because of the rain and couldn’t use spray cans. Today, the weather is good and we have a great turn out,” said Ulmer.

The teams this year included sororities, fraternities, sport teams, clubs and Resident Assistants.

Loredonna Fiore, a sophomore public relations major, said, “We painted Chestnut [Hall] being taken by a UFO since Chestnut is being taken down.”

One team, sorority Theta Phi, chose to paint Area 51 because of the Facebook event that went viral to “storm Area 51” to see the aliens.

The Rowan Arts Collective, which won last year’s movie-themed competition with “The Shape of Water” banner depicting President Houshmand embracing the Prof owl, Whoo RU, hopes to win this year. This year’s team, consisting of art majors and non-art majors, painted a spaceship with controls casting shadows with Whoo RU waving hello in its spacesuit.

Phi Sigma Pi, a gender inclusive fraternity, created a “Dark Side of the Moon” banner featuring a rainbow based off Pink Floyd’s album.

Stephanie Revas, a senior accounting major who is part of Phi Sigma Pi, said she’s done homecoming all four years at Rowan.

Revas said, “I just like being a part of stuff. I’ll definitely miss it after graduation. I’m hoping to make it in the Battleship [Competition]. That’s my goal.”

Some teams looked like they were having a hard time because they were either lacking people to help or they had to leave for class. The softball club team said out of 80 people, only three were able to come out for the banner competition.

Teammates Tiffany Lazam, Rebecca Finley and Jenna Montrose, a junior biology physics major, a sophomore health and physical education major and a freshman elementary education major, respectively, placed their hands in yellow paint to create a space cowboy on the softball poster.

When it was time to let the paint dry, teams got creative. The Theta Phi team used two large fans to dry the black paint covering most of the Area 51 banner. Another team used paper plates. 

The fencing team, however, used copies of The Whit and an umbrella to dry their banner. Saturn was hard to dry because of the amount of paint “as a result of being yellow and a slightly different yellow, and an even more slightly different yellow,” said Sean Denny, a senior computer science major.

Other banners included Lilo and Stitch, Toy Story, Star Wars, Stranger Things and Space Jam.

The winner of the homecoming banner competition will be announced Saturday during halftime at the homecoming football game.

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