Orange Fever, this year’s Homecoming theme, aims at uniting the campus community, said Emily Holtan, member of the Student Alumni Ambassadors and senior in LAS.

“We wanted something easily identifiable, but also noncontroversial,” Holtan said.

The Student Alumni Ambassadors, the group responsible for planning Homecoming events, overseeing marketing and publicity, and handling promotional matters, first suggested the Orange Fever theme to the Chancellor’s Committee in February.

“We were doing this during the whole Chief thing, so we were really focused on finding a way to make this a very unifying event,” Holtan said.

The committee approved the theme, paving the way for the promotion that is taking place this week on the Quad. Student Alumni Ambassadors are working to create awareness of the events taking place throughout the week and into the weekend.

Ten thousand orange pompoms were distributed at the Oct. 6 football game against Wisconsin, and Orange Fever T-shirts are for sale online and at various locations on campus. Student Alumni Ambassadors are also selling orange snap bracelets and other orange memorabilia on the Quad.

Dan Tattersall, co-chair of the Campus Public Relations Campaign and senior in LAS, said the snap bracelets and orange buttons have been two of the more popular items.

“We’ve found that a lot of alumni collect the buttons (from every Homecoming), so they’ve been a big hit,” he said.

The return of the Greek house decorating contest is another way the Student Alumni Ambassadors hope this year’s theme will help unite the University community.

“The one requirement for the houses is that they incorporate orange Christmas lights into their decorations,” Holtan said. “That’s one more way we’re hoping to paint the town orange. Those lights will be on all of Homecoming week.”

Holton said she hopes the week’s events will strengthen the University community.

“It’s all about bringing everyone together for those couple of days,” Holtan said.