Various Homecoming activities will take place throughout the week, and here are three profiles of some favorites.

PANT THE CHANT
    Wildcat fans will prove their purple blood during Pant the Chant at 8 p.m. in Bramlage Coliseum tonight. Campus organizations show their pride by performing chants about K-State.
    Lauren Griffith, senior in leadership studies and management, is co-chair for planning the event. She said 18 groups will participate this year, four of which are student organizations and the rest are residence halls, fraternities and sororities.
    The event is free and open to the public, but attendees are encouraged to bring at least one canned good, which will be donated to the Flint Hills Breadbasket.
    Six judges will determine the winning group based on four criteria, including rhythm, loudness, originality and the chant’s adherence to this year’s homecoming theme, Hard Rock K-State.
    Griffith said she’s looking forward to see how creative all the groups are with the rock-and-roll theme.
    Griffith said the planning process for Homecoming started in April, but Pant the Chant wasn’t being organized until September.
    In the past, groups of up to 100 students participated by shouting their well-rehearsed chants.
    Two years ago the event was in Ahearn Field House, which did not provide adequate acoustics for the event, according to a 2006 Collegian article. It has since been in Bramlage.
    Griffith said the primary advantage of having the event in Bramlage is everybody can see what’s going on — it’s more of a central location and seating isn’t an issue.

WILDCAT REQUEST LIVE
    Greek Homecoming pairings get to show off their song-and-dance talents Wednesday night at the Homecoming tradition Wildcat Request Live. Pairings will dance and lip-sync to a song of their choice. Lip syncing is part of the competition, but has typically been overshadowed by the elaborate dance routines.
    Eleven pairings will participate in this year’s WRL event, which will be at 8 p.m. in Bramlage Coliseum. Wildcat Request Live is free and open to the public.
    Judges will decide a winner after examining the performances based on four criteria: overall performance, adherence to the Homecoming theme, creativity and choreography.
    Event organizer Mike Nolan, senior in political science, said the Classy Cats and the K-State cheerleaders will perform prior to each pairing. Nolan said the event shows the talent, athleticism and creativity in the greek community.
    “I think it really shows the effort that we put into everything we do,” he said.
    Last year’s Homecoming theme was “Magic in Manhattan,” which inspired songs like “Abracadabra,” “Magic Carpet Ride” and “I Put a Spell on You,” according to a 2007 Collegian article. This year the theme is “Hard Rock K-State,” which promises entertaining music and creative dance routines—the heart and soul of Wildcat Request Live.

HOMECOMING PARADE
    The annual K-State Homecoming parade will be a finale to the week’s events at 5 p.m. Friday. President Jon Wefald and his wife, Ruth Ann, will be the grand marshals.
    The parade will start at Manhattan Town Center moving west to 11th Street, where it will turn north. The parade will continue down Moro Street in Aggieville. Once it reaches Manhattan Avenue, it will turn south and stop in City Park.
    Emily Taylor, senior in leadership studies and management, said the highlight will be the grand marshals, Fort Riley’s First Infantry Band and the “Hard Rock K-State”-themed floats, but she said she enjoys everything about the parade.
    “My favorite part about the parade is the thought of the Manhattan community and surrounding communities coming together to celebrate K-State,” she said.
    Taylor, one of the parade’s organizers, said 19 student-made floats will participate in this year’s parade, as well as 60 other entries from local groups.
    Taylor said three judges will determine the winner of the float competition, and three others will determine the winner of the overall parade competition. The judges’ names were asked to be kept confidential.
    She said floats will be judged based on three criteria. Design and appearance is worth 40 points, and is broken down into originality, worth 15 points, how fun the float is to look at, worth 15 points, and the detail put into the float, worth 10 points.
    The other two criteria are adherence to theme, worth 35 points, and school spirit and incorporation of K-State, worth 25 points.
    The overall parade competition will be judged based on four criteria, creativity, overall enthusiasm, member participation and generation of Wildcat spirit.
    “The part of the parade that I am not looking forward to is it being over,” Taylor said. “I have enjoyed planning Homecoming and being a part of the [Homecoming] committee.”