Marina Gaytan / The Collegian

The windows of the University Student Union at California State University, Fresno count down the four days left before Saturday’s football game with painted illustrations of this year’s theme, “Hollywood Homecoming.”

The paintings feature several bulldogs driving a vintage car, and a list of this year’s homecoming weeklong festivities. The events range from activities such as a cupcake eating contest, and a karaoke challenge, to a celebrity-look-a-like contest. The Henry Madden Library also hosts an exhibition welcoming back Fresno State alumni. Ultimately, though, homecoming week will come to a close with the highlight event, Saturday’s football game.

Amid the contests, events and ball game, the definition of homecoming became obscured.

According to the “text a librarian” feature at the library, Homecoming can be defined as “Fresno state alumni coming back to view the campus, so on and so forth; and a homecoming king and queen are crowned at that weekend’s football game.”

Consequently, definitions of “homecoming” differ from student to student.

Kathleen Galinato
“I went to one last year,” said pre-nursing sophomore Kathleen Galinato. “It was my first [homecoming] here.” Galinato attended high school in Stockton, Calif. prior to enrolling at Fresno State.
She said she believed homecoming has to do with promoting school spirit and also a football game. Galinato recalled the excitement at last year’s game. “Everyone was standing [in the student section],” she said. “No one would sit down.”

Marina Gaytan / The Collegian

Obee Rahman
“It has to do with the football game,” Obee Rahman, mathematics graduate student guessed, while tutoring a Buchanaan High School student who laughed at Rahman’s uncertainty. Rahman came to Fresno State from Louisiana in 2005. The graduate student said he has never attended homecoming but remembers hearing the word around campus. Other than that knowlege, though, Rahman said he felt unfamilar with the concept of “homecoming.” Even so, he hopes to attend the game this Saturday if he does not have to work.

Marina Gaytan / The Collegian

Sabina Fernandez
“I guess it’s just a way for students to come back to their old high school of college,” said pre law freshman Sabina Fernandez. School spirit comes to mind, she said. Fernandez also said that although she has yet to experience homecoming at Fresno State, her memories of high school homecomings still linger in her mind. A graduate of Herbert Hoover High School in Fresno, Fernandez’s homecoming memories include painting her body green (the school color) and cheering wildly, with friends, at the football game.