Homecoming Week, previously set for Sept. 21 to Sept. 27, has been re-scheduled for Nov. 9 to Nov. 15 because of the disruption caused by Hurricane Gustav.Staci Pepitone, assistant vice chancellor of Finance and Administrative Services, said the organizations involved in Homecoming need more time to prepare, but no activities will be canceled because of the shift. “There wasn’t adequate time to make it work,” Pepitone said. “When you miss a whole week of classes, people need to focus their minds on getting back into their pattern.”Homecoming Week will now lead up to the Nov. 15 football game against Troy University in Tiger Stadium. “When we talked to [the Athletic Department], that was the game that we could most logically move to without displacing other people,” Pepitone said.Guy Gaster, director of Athletics Marketing, said most of the other home games this season would not work because of the pre-game festivities associated with Homecoming. “We have to present the court and crown the king and queen,” Gaster said. “Troy was rescheduled so it was kind of like having a new game. It was fairly open.”The home game against Mississippi State was the original plan. There was some desire among students to have Homecoming during a SEC game, Pepitone said. “I know some people might be sad that it’s not on a conference game,” Pepitone said. Gaster said “every effort” was made to hold Homecoming on an SEC game.”If you look through all our materials, it was intended to be an SEC game,” Gaster said. For SEC games, game times can be announced as a late as six days before the game, Pepitone said. Knowing the game schedule ahead of time allowed University administrators to plan a Homecoming parade directly before kickoff.A concert in Alex Box Stadium was also added to the schedule, but administrators have not decided on performers for the concert.Gold Fest, the concert originally planned for Homecoming Week, will still be held Sept. 25 in the PMAC. Gavin DeGraw and Sean Kingston are scheduled to perform.”We already had the talent booked for the concert,” Pepitone said. “We just made that into a pep rally before the Gold Game.”—-Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]