Pomping presents new opportunities

This year's house decoration theme is video games.

By Erica Zucco

Published Oct. 19, 2007

Tonight, Donkey Kong, Pacman, Mario and Luigi will line the streets of Greektown as students, alumni and community residents enjoy house decorations sponsored by MU's Greek community.

The house decorations are the result of thousands of dollars worth of flame-resistant tissue paper and hundreds of hours of work by Greek students. This year's theme for house decorations is video games.

Pomping, or pasting squares of colored tissue paper to boards that together form a picture, has consumed many evenings over the last few weeks for Greek students on campus.

Some chapters asked for two to six hours of pomping a week from each of its members while others required more than 20 a week from its newest pledge class.

Sororities and fraternities are paired together in teams for Homecoming and complete the pomping for house decorations and parade floats as the team.

"Pomping hours are delegated in terms of how much experience everyone in the house has," sophomore Gamma Phi Beta sorority member Susie Steimle said. "The newest members have the most because they haven't done it before. Our newest members have about seven hours a week."

Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity are paired up for this year's Homecoming competition.

"Our new guys usually have about 22 hours a week," senior Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity member Andy Cohen said.

Cohen said Alpha Kappa Lambda's members do not mind the long, late-night pomping sessions.

"Its actually really fun," he said. "We usually have music on. It's kind of like a little party downstairs."

Members must spend a large amount of time pomping because the process itself is long and time consuming.

"Each board takes many, many hours," freshman Kappa Alpha Theta sorority member Becky Haden said. "You never see a board completed start to finish with just a couple of people doing it. It takes a ton of people working together and a lot of time."

Required pomping hours for Haden's chapter grew as the weeks went on.

"They add more hours gradually as you get used to it and as Homecoming comes closer and more needs to be done," Haden said. "We started with two, and by last week, we were at six."

Kappa Alpha Theta is paired with Pi Kappa Phi and Beta Sigma Psi fraternities.

"You meet a lot of new people through pomping," Haden said. "It's been great to get to know everyone, especially the girls in my pledge class and all the guys in the fraternities."

But not all Kappa Alpha Theta members spend their required participation hours pomping. The girls receive Homecoming hours as opposed to pomping hours.

"I'm dancing for Theta, so my hours have been spent practicing," Kappa Alpha Theta sorority member freshman Michelle Flandreau said. "I have done some pomping, though, and it's been really fun."

Students catch on to the procedure quickly, and although the process takes a long time, the steps are pretty simple.

Members roll tissue paper around a marker, dip the paper into pomp juice — a mixture of flour and water — and stick it to the board, Haden said.

Although the process of pomping can be tedious, many fraternity and sorority members do not see it as a chore, but instead as an opportunity to meet members of both their own chapters and of the chapter it is paired with.

"I'm a new member, and pomping gives you a great chance to get to know all the girls in your pledge class," sophomore Kappa Delta sorority member Caitlin Mundschenk said. "You spend a lot of time pomping, and you get to talking with everyone."

Kappa Delta worked with fraternities Alpha Gamma Sigma and Tau Kappa Epsilon.

"We also got to know our Homecoming partners pretty well, and they were a lot of fun," Ogar said.

New members were not the only Greek students who benefited from meeting new people.

Junior Alpha Chi Omega sorority member Lizzy Sutton said some of her experience has been getting to know the new members and meeting people in the fraternities.

Alpha Chi Omega is paired up with Kappa Sigma and Delta Sigma Phi.

"I can't wait to see it all come together and to see all of the house decs go up," Sutton said.

Creating house decorations has been an opportunity for Greeks with artistic talents to share their skills.

"Painting's really fun," Cohen said. "I did a lot of painting in high school, and house decs are a great way for me to do it again."

The results of hours of pomping will be up for display from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. tonight in Greektown.