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Matt LiparotaCampus Editor

DeKALB | Campus Activities Board (CAB) set up shop in the MLK Commons Monday afternoon to let everyone know homecoming week is here.

From noon to 3 p.m., members of CAB, accompanied by members of the home-coming court, handed out T-shirts, mini-footballs and wristbands to anyone pass-ing through the area.

Cassandra Lombard, homecoming queen candidate and junior accounting major, was out at the rally. She said the event worked not just as a way to cam-paign, but to promote CAB as well.

Lombard also said she’s excited about events this week, especially the recycled boat race.

“I’m really excited about events like the boat race,” Lombard said. “It’s the perfect weather for all this.”

Jasmine Harvell, senior accounting major and another queen candidate, said the boat race is an event she’s looking forward to as well.

“I’m excited to see the boat race [to-day],” Harvell said. “It takes a daredevil to get into the lagoon.”

The race, from 4 to 7 p.m. today at the East Lagoon, is an event in which partici-pants create their own boats out of recycled materials and race them on the lagoon.

Guadalupe Barraza-Ramirez, vice presi-dent of Huskie Tradition for CAB, said she is looking forward to the parade on Sat-urday morning.

“It’s one of the times we get to inter-sect with the DeKalb community,” Barra-za-Ramirez said.

Barraza-Ramirez said she thinks this year’s theme, “All of the Lights,” speaks to the unity of the university’s diversity.

“It’s about how we as a Huskie commu-nity shine together and come together,” Barraza-Ramirez said.

Homecoming week might be the biggest thing CAB does all year, Barraza-Ramirez said - certainly the biggest thing it does in the fall semester. The weeklong event is something for which the organization is known.

“If there was a year CAB didn’t have [homecoming], it would be missed,” Barra-za-Ramirez said.

Free stuff doesn’t hurt either, Barraza-Ramirez said.

“Who doesn’t want a free shirt?” she said.

Sophomore nursing major Sam Sadecki said she’s looking forward to Saturday’s football game and tailgating.

“Everyone is all together, getting pumped up [for the game],” Sadecki said.

Getting the word out

Pep rally pumps up students for homecoming festivities

tuesDaY, october 11, 2011

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Netflix nixes DVD changes

Matt LiparotaCampus Editor

DeKALB | Netflix generates more head-scratching plot twists than a cheap B-movie.

On Monday, the company said it would reverse a previously announced deci-sion to put its DVD-by-mail and Inter-net streaming services on separate web-sites, a plan that was widely derided by Netflix subscribers.

“I actually thought [Netflix CEO Reed] Hastings was trying to sink the com-pany,” said business instructor Stacey Short. “I thought he was a ringer.”

Netflix’s recent decision-making may harm the company’s image, Short said.

“Are they really going to lose reve-nue?” Short said. “Maybe, maybe not; they’re certainly going to hurt the brand image.”

Less than a month ago, Netflix said it would split the DVD rental business off to a new website, to be called Qwik-ster. Subscribers howled at the move, saying they saw Netflix as a destination for movies in general and didn’t want to manage two accounts.

“It is clear that for many of our mem-bers, two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs,” Hastings said in a blog post Monday.

Going back on decisions can cause customers and shareholders to question the people at the top, Short said.

“One has to wonder what the heck is going on on top of Netflix,” Short said. “The decisions being made are just weird.”

Short said this is not the first time a company has gone back on a decision.

“It reminds me of the whole ‘New Coke’ debacle,” Short said.

In the mid-80s, Coca-Cola changed its formula, debuting the product as a “new Coke.” Customer reaction was over-whelmingly negative, and Coca-Cola soon returned to the original formula. Short said it was a public relations set-back that hurt Coca-Cola for three to five years.

Video rental company says by-mail, streaming video services will not divide, remain one business

Matt Liparota | Northern Star

Members of Campus Activities Board hand out Homecoming 2011 T-shirts, footballs and thundersticks during Monday’s pep rally in the MLK Commons.

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