Provided by WKU

This year’s homecoming will lean into the creepy and macabre with the theme “Nightmare on Normal Street.”

The WKU Alumni’s Twitter account tweeted the announcement Wednesday morning. The theme will take on the classic 1984 film “Nightmare on Elm Street.”

“We modeled the process after last year, we wanted to have student involvement, so what we did is utilize our Alumni Ambassadors,” Zach Marcum, assistant director for alumni engagement, said. “They have a wonderful following on Instagram so our student organization put out the call for homecoming theme nominations, and we had about 20 unique themes.”

Marcum said the theme was then selected by a “Homecoming Student Advisory Committee” composed of various student and faculty alliances and councils, including the Student Government Association, the Global Learning Alliance and the Intercultural Student Engagement Center.

“They scored the themes based on criteria [the committee] created and whittled it down to two themes,” Marcum said. “Those final themes were then added to Instagram as a poll. More than 600 Hilltoppers participated in the final Instagram poll to select the winning theme, which was submitted by Kappa Alpha Psi.”

Per Marcum, a space theme titled “Out of this World” came in second place.

“Either way we couldn’t lose,” Marcum said. “Either way it was going to be fantastic.”

Marcum said this year’s theme will provide “an opportunity to be creative and capitalize on the season of Halloween.”

WKU’s homecoming week will begin on Monday, Oct. 24, and culminate with the football game on Saturday, Oct. 29, when the Hilltoppers face off against North Texas. 

Marcum said this homecoming has the potential to be the first time many alumni will be back on campus. He is hopeful that this event will provide a fun, safe environment for students, parents and alumni.

“I’m very excited,” Marcum said. “At the end of the day my role is to connect students with alumni…and homecoming is the easiest, best and most fun way to do that. I’m really hopeful that this is going to be the best turnout we’ve had in a long time.”

More information about the homecoming schedule can be found here.

Administration reporter Michael Crimmins can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @michael_crimm.