The purpose of this article is to communicate my thoughts on the university’s longest running student tradition and to offer my vision for the event in years to come.

Hippodrome is the oldest campus tradition, dating back to 1928. Every year, student organizations perform skits and compete to be crowned the winners of Hippodrome, big trophy and all.

I support the value of tradition, as it preserves history and is a way to stay in touch with our cultural roots. But I also think any tradition should not be preserved without proper reflection on why we continue celebrating it every year.

Hippodrome has historically been funded by student fees, sponsors and ticket revenue. The event doesn’t break even in its current form. This current approach reinforces my concern of performing a tradition simply for the sake of it.

Student organizations, predominantly fraternities and sororities, invest a significant amount of time, energy and money in perfecting their skits in hopes of claiming the bragging rights for a year. I believe Hippodrome can represent something more.

Student revues like Hippodrome are not unique to Wichita State. Since my freshman year, I have attended the Rock Chalk Revue event at the University of Kansas, which is the same concept of Hippodrome, except the event raises tens of thousands of dollars for local philanthropy. Each year I left KU asking myself why couldn’t we do the same for our community. Oklahoma State University hosts the annual Varsity Revue through fraternity and sorority life with a similar philanthropic component. In fact, most large-scale student organization revue events have some theme dedicated to serving the community.

I understand that it would be difficult to implement any major structural changes to the upcoming Hippodrome in spring 2015, but I’d like to begin exploring the possibilities of enhancing the tradition to become focused on the mission of philanthropy for the Wichita community.

I think more people would be likely to come to an event that serves the greater good of the community, and more business partners would be likely to sponsor a philanthropic event. The rebranding and repurposing that I’m proposing will not marginalize the value of Hippodrome’s rich tradition. I envision these new features will only serve to strengthen the event and create a more sustainable relevance moving forward.

Tomorrow’s monthly all-Greek presidents meeting will be an initial step in discussing ideas for improving Hippodrome in the future.

Fraternity and sorority chapters are consistently the major contributors to the event planned and hosted by the Student Activities Council, which makes the chapter presidents an important audience for feedback. Following this meeting, I will be meeting with staff in the Student Involvement office to discuss opportunities for making this philanthropic vision a reality.

As a student leader, I hear a recurring theme that encourages student organizations to serve the greater Wichita community through community service and philanthropic activities. WSU’s fraternity and sorority community exemplifies this ethos year-round as there is seemingly always a philanthropy event being hosted by one of the chapters.

 I’m advocating for a joint effort between everyone involved in Hippodrome to apply all of the time and energy historically invested into the event and give it back to the local community. I want future Shockers to know Hippodrome for the impact it has on our community, in addition to the enormous fun it is to perform on stage with friends. Any support in this initiative would be greatly appreciated. Contact me at 316.978.7060 or [email protected].