Halloween at Home is discontinued indefinitely.

“For the foreseeable future, yes.”

Colin Worden, executive president of the Class Officer Collective, uttered this statement gently and with a bit of remorse hanging onto the last word. The trick-or-treating tradition that went on for more than a decade came to an end this year. The decision, which was made by COC, was a saddening choice made for a good cause in the long run.

“Sometime in the [2013-2014] second semester, it was brought up that Halloween at Home was difficult to justify with the COC’s mission statement, while homecoming fit perfectly,” said Worden.

“Yet for some reason, we had been pouring a large amount of money into Halloween at Home, and neglecting homecoming. Once we realized there was a contradiction between the spending & our mission statement, we knew that we had to discontinue it.”

Ricky Marcus, assistant director for Student Engagement and an advisor for the COC, stated that the initial goal for giving up Halloween at Home was to give the COC enough time and funds to put more emphasis on homecoming.

“The COC decided to showcase their school spirit, and was instrumental in planning homecoming events. They were very pleased with the turnout.”

This year’s homecoming benefitted from the extra funding, with popular events like pushball being reinstalled. However, because it fell during midterm week, the attendance increase was not noticeable. Worden notes that it may take a few years for the COC’s rejuvenation of homecoming to be noticeable, “but that’s just a part of the grind.”

“COC wants to become the spearhead for the undergraduate student homecoming experience,” said Worden.