Many students and faculty were unsure about whether homecoming was going to take place this year, but it has been in full effect this week with activities that follow safety guidelines.

One of those events, coronation, is set to be the height of the week, as it has been in recent years.

Usually taking place during the pep rally, coronation will look a bit different this year.

Students can expect to see their school royalty crowned virtually Friday at 7 p.m. via Facebook.

“The reason for this is because we wanted to limit how much contact everyone has with one another, as well as limit the spread of COVID-19. So, we are going to do a social media review” said Lulu Shimonde, a senior psychology major who is serving as the coronation and elections chair this year.

Shimonde said that doing coronation virtually it will hopefully get the Eastern community engaged since the homecoming committee is keeping quiet about it, hoping to bring an element of surprise.

Unlike recent years where nominees would have to participate in an interview process, Shimonde said this year’s nominees only had to write an essay and promote themselves on social media.

Shimonde said that she feels having not only coronation, but homecoming in general, was very needed in this time of crisis.

“I feel like with COVID-19 a lot of people lost a lot of things, including our sense of normalcy,” she said.

She also said that with the cancelling of so many student activities already such as football and the pep rally, she’s hoping that homecoming fills that void for students.

“But cancelling homecoming all together I feel would’ve been a great loss because it would’ve felt like we’re moving through time with no sense of—we’re just moving, we’re just going,” Shimonde said. “Whereas having fun stuff that happens and gives us that nice escape is really nice to have, especially when it’s so COVID friendly for everybody to participate in.”

Shimonde said students should check the EIU Homecoming social media pages for a big reveal involving coronation and highly encourages students to come out to the in-person events if they feel comfortable enough to do so.

Daniel Jones can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].