UW homecoming king, queen trumped by pair of "royals"

By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The royalty, see, is not one king and one queen. Instead, the wearers of the crown are two young women who had never met, dubbed "royals," who finished with the top two scores in a merit-based homecoming scholarship contest that gives no favoritism to gender.

The Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW), the campus group that organizes homecoming, broke from the annual tradition of a homecoming king and queen in 2003 in order to make the scholarship competition more equitable.

No one noticed the change last year because a male and a female finished in the top two. But as sure as the gowns on 2004 royals Emi Nomura Sumida and Glorya Cho, people will notice this year.

Sumida, Cho and their four-member homecoming court will be presented tonight at a campus pep rally on Red Square and again at tomorrow's football game at Husky Stadium.

"I think it's great the UW has chosen to have a nongender-specific homecoming royalty," said Sumida, 20, a communication major and graduate of Seattle's Roosevelt High School. "In our day and age, a lot of the traditional definitions of roles are changing, and this follows in line with that. Once people realize that this is not just a popularity contest but one based on qualifications, they'll hopefully understand and accept it."

Sumida and Cho were crowned Monday at a private reception. Jenni Backes, ASUW director of programming, said the student group is catching some flak about the change.

"It's challenging," she said. "A lot of people want to see a homecoming king and a homecoming queen because that's tradition. Yeah, it's kind of odd to have two females as our homecoming royalty, but they are the most deserving students for the award."

Students competing for the two $1,000 homecoming scholarships, awarded by the University of Washington Alumni Association, are judged based on grade-point average, campus activities, community activities, career educational goals and honors and awards, said Trevor Whiton, UW senior adviser for student activities.

Twelve scholarship finalists are selected. After interviews, an eight-judge panel whittles that number to six based on a point-grading system, with the top two scorers crowned as "royals" and the rest named members of their court.

In the past, the top male and top female point-scorers were selected king and queen, even if one of them did not finish in the top two.
 
Whiton said the scholarship awards became part of the homecoming royalty selection within the past 10 years. He estimated the tradition of a homecoming king and queen dated at least 50 years.

When they applied for the scholarship, neither Sumida nor Cho realized the two winners could be the same gender.

"People do get confused when I say 'homecoming royal' and not 'homecoming queen,' " said Cho, 19, an economics major and Bainbridge High School graduate. "People are still getting the hang of it."

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com