All over campus are posters announcing Eagle Spirit Week and the theme for homecoming, “Paint the Town Red.”

“Coming up with a theme for homecoming is probably the most frustrating task for a committee,” said Lisa Poplawski, director of Alumni Advancement. “You don’t want it to be cheesy, you want it to have meaning, you want it to represent who you are as a university and you want people to be able to decorate to it.”

The committee has representatives from all over campus including members from Eagle Entertainment, ASEWU, student health and safety, dining, the Eagle bookstore, and Community Engagement.

For this year’s theme the committee thought ‘red.’

“It’s kind of up for interpretation,” said Poplawski.

She said students should define the theme for themselves and how they want to incorporate it into the Spirit Splash competitions.

The Spirit Splash is advertised by Eastern’s website as a decorating competition between the university, residence halls, and the Cheney community to see who does the best job representing the theme.

“The initial idea and the thought behind painting the town red is to go out there and paint Cheney with Eastern colors and really get the whole community involved,” said Mikey Cardenas, chairman of Eagle Entertainment and theme committee member.

Cardenas said the decorations for the Mr. and Mrs. Eastern Pageant is just one way Eagle Entertainment is integrating the theme.

The biggest change from last year is the incorporation of Eagle Spirit Week when advertising homecoming.

“It’s a rebranding effort,” said Poplawski.

Poplawski said labeling it as Eagle Spirit Week better defines what the week has to offer for the students and that it makes more sense because visiting parents and prospective students are not coming home, they are participating in family weekend and spirit events.

“Our community is great and we do work with them all the time, so it’s to get everyone involved in Eagle Spirit Week, and not just the campus,” said Cardenas.