This year, student fees allocated $172,700 specifically for homecoming.

The ‘Greatest Homecoming on Earth’ is what North Carolina A&T is known for.

In order to have such well thought out events and maintain homecoming’s tradition, one thing must be involved. Money.

Where does this money come from? The homecoming budget is included in the student activity fee that is charged to each student per semester. Student activity fees are used for multiple events and organizations on campus.

In addition to the portion of student activity fees being used, anything raised out of ticket sales goes towards the homecoming budget. As of Oct. 31, the total was $139,353 and still rising.

This leaves the Homecoming Committee to work with about $312,053.

The biggest portion of expenses goes towards the Hip Hop Concert and the Gospel Concert. The total cost for both concerts was $160,000.

Diamond Life Concerts takes that sum of money and negotiates with various artists. They take that sum of money along with results from a homecoming survey that students take over the summer and see who they can get.

“The decisions and ideas are brought forward by the students,” said Kimberley Sowell, assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs. “Then, we as administrators kind of guide them to say okay this is how we can make this happen. Homecoming is really a student driven week of events.”

Sowell stressed the importance of student participation since the budget is determined by students because they are the ones who buy tickets and also whose tuition is being used.

There is a homecoming committee for all of the student events. The committee is made up of 24 people who include faculty and staff as well as student leaders.

“That committee is the group that decides on which event will be held during homecoming, what the set up should look like, what equipment is needed,” Sowell said.

In the Homecoming committee is a representative from SGA and SUAB.

Melanie Jones, SGA Vice President of External Affairs, is one of the co-chairpersons to all of the homecoming events. “I plan out almost every event, including the day events, while making sure everything runs smoothly,” said Jones.

The remaining funds from homecoming goes towards Aggie Fest in the spring.

“I feel like it is [worth it]. If we were to step outside of the university, prices would be a lot higher. I do not believe that the homecoming budget should be included in tuition because everybody does not always participate is all homecoming events,” said Cornesha Rajah, a sophomore.

Some students, however, do not feel as though the school needs to spend as much money on homecoming.

“I don’t think it’s worth it at all, I’d rather have the money in my pocket [from student activity fees],” said senior Jeffrey Silverthorne. “They cannot create a good enough concert for us to want to go to with the budget they have.”

The budget is tight and all students can never be fully satisfied with every event, but SGA along with other organizations have distributed surveys to students in order to accommadate their wishes.

Every detail has to be planned precisely in advance, and some planning takes place during the summer.

—Email Taylor at [email protected] and follow The Register on Twitter @TheATRegister

• Taylor Young, Register Reporter