While venturing through archived issues of The Daily Eastern News for Homecoming-related content, members of our staff stumbled upon the following entry from 14 years ago:

“Weeks after a junior high school marching band was pelted with beer cans, candy, lit cigarettes and verbal abuse at Eastern’s Homecoming parade, administration officials, along with members of Student Government, Eastern’s faculty and the city council, are working on a series of reforms for future homecomings.”

That’s a pretty embarrassing sentence.

It’s also one we hope to never need to write again.

Saturday’s parade is, by most measures, the culmination of Eastern’s Homecoming week.

As noted in today’s columns, the Saturday of Homecoming is a great day for this school—alumni pour into town; students, ignoring the inherent irony of barely making it to a 9 a.m. classes, are up with the sun drinking, ready to drink; Charleston residents flock to see their kids as they stroll the parade route between Uptown and Lincoln.

It’s a festive time—a time to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, or simply blow off some steam.

And then in the middle of that goodwill and cheer, someone inevitably has to try to ruin it by acting like an idiot.

In recent years, Eastern students have actually been pretty good about it (or, at least, compared to the catastrophe that was 2002).

And while it seems silly to pat ourselves on the back for not acting like morons, it’s still pretty remarkable that the last few years have concluded with only some minor hiccups.

Let’s keep it that way.

This weekend, as you go about your respective Homecoming plans, be ever mindful that you are still a representative of Eastern Illinois University, and, as a direct result, a representative of our student body.

And keep that reciprocal relationship in mind as you observe other students throughout the weekend. If your actions represent theirs, then so too do their actions fall on you.

Therefore, be diligent in not only staying safe and respectful, but advocate that your fellow students do the same.

If every member of the Eastern community remains committed to those ideas, this weekend will be another weekend in a long line of successful Homecomings.