News Detail

Edinboro University expands Homecoming Parade route

Annual event to be co-sponsored with Borough of Edinboro

EDINB ORO, Pa. – Edinboro University Interim President Jim Moran and the University’s 2011 Homecoming Committee announced this week that the annual Homecoming Parade route has been expanded to include more than a mile through Edinboro borough streets.

“We’re pleased to be able to come together with the entire Edinboro Borough community in this extension of an event that should be one of the highlights of Homecoming Weekend,” Dr. Moran said. “The Homecoming Committee and borough officials have developed a parade route that expands this event for the enjoyment of all.”

For the past three years, the Homecoming Parade route wended its way through the 1.2 mile inner-campus loop. The Homecoming Committee considered various ways to extend this year’s Saturday, October 8, parade into the community, while at the same time complying with applicable borough and Commonwealth permitting requirements for Pennsylvania and U.S. highways and borough street closures during the event.

With the expansion of the Homecoming parade route, the Borough of Edinboro has joined with the University as a co-sponsor of the popular annual event.

The new agreed upon route – contingent upon the University obtaining the required permits – will begin and end on Edinboro’s campus with parade participants traveling 1.7 miles along a path that includes campus roads and borough streets.

 “There has been an atmosphere of collegiality and cooperation between the University and Edinboro borough officials,” said Jon Pulice, Director of Alumni Relations and one of the Homecoming Committee’s Tri-Chairs.  “This clearly shows what can be accomplished when a university and its host municipality work together for the good of the total community.”

This year’s parade is about a half mile longer than the previous route along the internal campus loop. The new route encompasses more than a mile through  streets not on, but adjacent to campus.

“As a committee and with borough and public safety officials, we decided it was best to avoid Route 6N for a number of reasons,” explained Pulice. “One is that it would require additional permitting for the closure of a major east-west U.S. highway that is heavily travelled. Also vital is that Route 6N must be accessible for emergency vehicles at all times. The new route takes the parade through the campus and borough streets without compromising public safety.”

The 11 a.m. parade on October 8 is but one component of a multi-event Homecoming Weekend for students, returning alumni, university faculty and staff, and the broader community beyond.

Plans are underway for a pre-parade community brunch on the Doucette Hall lawns, a football game with the Fighting Scots taking on their PSAC-West rivals, Slippery Rock University, and numerous other Homecoming activities.  New this year, for example, will be a post-game “Fifth Quarter Celebration” in downtown Edinboro featuring live music and local food and beverage vendors.

More detailed information – including announcement of the Homecoming Parade’s Grand Marshal – will be released in the weeks and days leading up to the fall weekend’s festivities. For now, tentative scheduling and Homecoming information is available online at www.edinboro.edu.