The Homecoming Spirit Board for Alpha Phi and Sigma Pi was stolen at the start of homecoming week, which affected the amount of points the group received.

Greek Houses and Residence Halls received one point for Homecoming per day that the spirit board was displayed.

Alpha Phi/ Sigma Pi ranked as second place for Homecoming with 113 points, and Alpha Gamma Delta/ Sigma Phi Epsilon won with 116 points.

Sam Plaia, president of Alpha Phi, commented on the point difference.

“We ended up losing by a very small amount of points, and those three points could have easily been there with having our spirit board out,” Plaia said, “I think that Eastern should take a good look at this situation and measure out what they think is necessary to do in this sort of situation.”

Dave Mejia, president of Sigma Pi, discussed his reaction to the spirit board being stolen.

“It’s just kind of upsetting because it’s one of those things that we put work into, and it seems like our hard work didn’t pay off,” Mejia said.

Plaia agreed.

“It was very unsportsman-like for anybody to take something of ours when we are all in the competition together, and it’s not fair for us because we didn’t end up getting the points that we were supposed to be awarded for having it,” Plaia said.

Mejia discussed possible motives that someone might have for stealing the spirit board.

“There could be a whole host of reasons,” Mejia said. “It could be a prank or even someone wanting some memorabilia for homecoming or other incentives as well.”

Plaia also mentioned possibilities for stealing the spirit board.

“It could probably be because (the thief) had a negative attitude toward either Alpha Phi or Sigma Pi and wanted to decrease our chances of winning,” Plaia said.

Mejia said there is a certain process to go through to address issues such as the spirit board being stolen.

“A great thing about the Greek community is that we have a whole process of settling disputes like this internally so we notified the proper authorities, and we are going through that avenue and just trying to get some kind of resolution on the issue,” Mejia said.

Plaia offered a resolution to prevent this issue from happening in the future.

“This could happen again and it’s not fair to us or to anyone else that is in this situation to not have the same equal chances as everyone else,” Plaia said. “I personally think that the spirit boards should just be counted for participation points instead of for everyday that they are displayed since ours was stolen.”

Mejia also commented on the issue.

“You can’t really point fingers in a situation like this,” Mejia said. “It’s not one of those things where someone is caught holding the bag. We definitely just think that everyone should get equal participation, and we shouldn’t be disadvantaged for our misfortunes.”

Plaia discussed reactions within Alpha Phi regarding the stolen spirit board.

“Some members tend to blame people because they think that they have an idea of who it is, and I try and tell them to just let it go. Everything happens for a reason, and we know that we didn’t do anything to sabotage anybody else, and we are happy with how we participated,” Plaia said.

Mejia agreed.

“It was such a close race, we put as much work into Homecoming as anyone else, we just hoped that the rest of the student body would have been respectful to property on campus so we wouldn’t have had to deal with this situation,” Mejia said. “It’s definitely just unfortunate to have happen.”

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-7942 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.