Every year during homecoming week, Hamline announces a homecoming court. How these students are chosen and crowned is a huge event, yet in order to make this happen this year many factors needed to be considered.  

“[This event] was framed around the fact that we as an institution have been given the green light to operate with business as usual,” Patrick Haught, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development said. “Due to the mask and vaccination policies Hamline has in place.” 

The nomination and selection process of the homecoming court involves both students and staff members. Students nominate students that they feel deserve to be a part of the court and exemplify ‘Piper pride.’ 

“[This event will] give students the opportunity to participate and be involved.” Haught said. The ten nominees selected for the court were chosen from those nominated by a panel of staff members. Haught explained that who ends upon court is not purely based upon the number of votes an individual receives, the strength of the nominations are heavily taken into consideration. The staff are required to be as unbiased as possible, not allowing outside knowledge of the nominees to sway their opinions. The nominations themselves show the strength and impact that the nominee has on the campus. 

Due to Hamline’s size, many of the nominees were known to people on the selection committee. Yet, they are encouraged to only take into consideration what is mentioned in the nominations. So that what a student says in a nomination for another student showing the impact that they have had on your Hamline experience is the most important part of someone ending up on the court or not.

This year there were 337 overall votes on the ten nominees, more than double what last year’s voting turnout was. “Part of that is people being excited about being on campus again,” Haught said. Haught also explained that he believes the marketing across campus this year played a role in the increase in votes. He specifically mentioned the all student emails and posters across campus.  

The five winners were sophomore Caleb Lueders, sophomore Mohamed Shukri, junior Yee Thao, junior Maddie Sowinski and senior Crystal Camacho.

“The effort that the nominators put into the nominations, the strength of students’ involvement, their piper pride and overall the nomination is what makes [a good candidate].” Haught said

The winners were announced during the Lip-Sync competition.