Friday night, while some students were cheering on the hockey team, partying or showing their parents the sights of Boston University, others were behind the College of Arts and Sciences hammering, painting, and duct-taping materials to flatbed trucks and golf carts until early morning.
In preparation for the annual Homecoming parade, students crafted floats from 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. the morning of the parade, which marched down Commonwealth Avenue Saturday morning. The theme for the floats this year was ‘Made in the ’80s.’
Seth Rosenzweig, the programs coordinator for the Student Activities Office said they chose the theme because the `80s was a time all the students could remember from their own experiences.
‘We thought all the students could relate to it,’ Rosenzweig said. ‘Everyone was hopefully made in the `80s.’
Rosenzweig also discussed this year’s different location for the float building. The event took place in the Armory in previous years, but after the building’s demolition this summer, the SAO had to improvise with a tent. Rosenzweig said he was in favor of the change of location.
‘The Armory was too big. Here, you get a community feeling,’ Rosenzweig said. ‘All smushed together, with the band playing there’s more energy in here.’
The tent that housed the float-building activities was in the parking lot behind CAS, and while there was a lot of work to do, the atmosphere was party-like. The music, audible from almost a block away, blared from two large speakers. Outside the tent were long tables piled with mountains of pizza boxes, most of them empty.
The music, shouting, and smell of paint inside the tent were overwhelming, students said. Covering almost every inch of floor space not devoted to the trucks and golf carts were crumpled newspapers, paint-filled plastic bowls, and scraps of chicken wire and wood.
A cover band played ’80s tunes, including ‘Roxanne’ by The Police and ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ by Bon Jovi.
Near the speakers, School of Management students were on their hands and knees gluing sheets of newspaper to plywood. Pam Ariyakulkan, an SMG junior, said the students on the SMG float would not dress up, but would cheer and try to get the crowd excited.
‘We got ‘Most Spirited’ last year, so that’s what we’re going to go for again this year,’ Ariyakulkan said.
The SMG float was the only float not based around pop-culture. Most floats focused on ’80s television, movies and music, but SMG’s float was a representation of Wall Street, with a bull (for the bull market), a hat filled with money, and boxing gloves symbolizing the IBM and Macintosh companies.
One such float was The Student Union’s ‘BU Thriller,’ a takeoff of Michael Jackson’s hit ‘Thriller.’ Diana Zito, a School of Education junior working on the float, said between five and 10 people had learned the dance from the music video and were going to perform it during the parade, with Union President Ethan Clay portraying Jackson.
The Interfraternity Sorority Council also chose to showcase a popular ’80s song Aerosmith and Run DMC’s version of ‘Walk this Way.’
Molly Johnson, a CAS senior, explained why the committee chose that particular song.
‘We’re trying to pump up everybody for Greek life,’ Johnson said. ”Walk this Way’ would be an invitation for students to join fraternities and sororities.’
Watching the students work on their floats, Associate Dean of Students Herbert Ross strolled through the tent with his wife. Ross was one of the judges this year in the float competition, but he said he has a special place for the float-building event.
‘In 1981, the night before the first parade, my son was born, and now he’s a senior,’ Ross said. He recalled the year he was watching the float building when his wife beeped him and said she was going into labor. He rushed to the hospital and missed the first annual parade.
Ross has been a judge for many of the parades after that year; he estimated that he has been a judge for half of the parades.
Five students sat around an arc of chicken wire, tying brightly colored tissue paper to it. They were working on the School of Education’s float, the theme of which was ‘Reading Rainbow,’ a 1980s PBS TV show that promoted reading to children.
Pam Osing, an SED sophomore with a streak of purple paint decorating her left cheek, explained why they chose their theme.
‘We always try to do something with education,’ Osing said. She said the float would eventually feature ’80s characters like Alf, Rainbow Brite, and Carebears reading books.
Nearby, School of Engineering students were nailing wood together to create 3-D models of the DeLorean from the movie ‘Back to the Future’ and a character from ‘The Karate Kid’ standing on one leg, a famous pose from the movie.
Doug DiSabello, an ENG junior, explained the students had an advantage in the competition, many of them being engineers.
‘It’s actually a benefit of being in engineering,’ DiSabello laughed, referring to the planning and skill it takes to craft such models.
DiSabello said they got the idea for the float from students in the school who make presentations earlier in the year.
‘Every year, the freshmen have a competition with their advising groups,’ DiSabello said.
DiSabello also said the students on the floats were going to wear tags with their ‘Made on date,’ following the theme ‘Made in the ’80s.’ Each tag would have the phrase ‘Made On’ followed by the wearer’s birthday.
Near the entrance to the tent, West Campus representative worked on their float’s ‘Ghostbusters’ theme.
The float featured models of the three West Campus dorms, the Stay=Puff Marshmallow Man from the movie, and ‘a bunch of West Campus kids acting scared,’ according to Jessica Costa, a CAS freshman.
Most groups with golf carts chose to represent a famous car or vehicle from the ’80s.
Students from Shelton Hall built a replica of the Batmobile from the ‘Batman’ movie.
‘It’s a classic ’80s icon,’ said Sarah Pozniak, a CAS freshman. ‘Everybody likes the Batmobile.’
Other vehicular images were the taxi cab from ‘Roger Rabbit,’ by the Local Students Union; a camouflage helicopter with red crosses on it from the TV show M.A.S.H. by Sargent College students; and the DeLorean from ‘Back to the Future’ by the South Campus Residents Hall Association.
April Lawson, a CAS sophomore and part of the South Campus team, said one of the unique touches of their final project would be the car’s license plate.
‘It’s the authentic license plate that we painted just like the [one in the] movie,’ Lawson said. ‘It says ‘Out of Time.”
Other golf carts’ themes were Pac Man from Myles Standish Hall residents, ‘Wizard of Oz’ from 1019 Commonwealth residents, and ‘Carebears’ from the Community Service Center.