The University of Wisconsin-Stout is taking a stand for gender equality by not choosing its homecoming king and queen this year. By doing this, the university is removing an 80-year old tradition of the university.
Instead of crowning two people as the homecoming king and queen, the university will choose around 10 students and be given the Stout Ambassador Spirit Award. According to Emily Ascher, the campus activity coordinator of the University of Wisconsin, this is a very good move because it will give an opportunity for more students to be recognized. She added that representing the school is not just the work of two people but every student of the university. She also stressed that this breaks the gender exclusivity which the tradition has been promoting all these years.
"Restricting that role to a gender-specific pair limits opportunities, both for our students and program as a whole," she said
As ambassadors of the university, students who will receive the award will have the responsibilities of what an ambassador really is as opposed to the homecoming king and queen who just serve as poster images after the event. Thus, the ambassadors are expected to represent the student body during homecoming activities and meet with the chancellor for breakfast during the year.
The University of Wisconsin-Stout isn't the first one to remove the said event in their homecoming activities. Other high schools and universities have been taking down gender-specific activities in different ways. For example, The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire removed the "king and queen" title and changed it to "royalty" instead. By doing so, it removes the limitation that only opposite genders can be chosen during the said event.
The university firs held its homecoming event in 1917 and crowned its first homecoming queen in 1937.
