No Adviser

The Hobo Day Committee is currently planning their biggest event of the year without an adviser.

According to Grand Pooba Victoria Hansen, the old adviser, Matilyn Kerr, left in November of 2023. This was a few weeks after Hansen was appointed as Grand Pooba.

Kerr was previously the Hobo Day and State-a-Thon Adviser, but she now works for Brookings Economic Development Corporation. Another adviser is now needed to help oversee both of those organizations.

Cody Burggraff, the director of student programs, said, “The search for the University Traditions Adviser is open and going through the HR search process.”

Hansen said that it’s been going smoothly for the Hobo Day Committee despite not having an adviser. “It’s very different not having a steady adviser that knows how the Hobo Day Committee works.”

“There is a good group of students in place leading the charge,” Burggraff said. “While we may not have the Hobo Day adviser position filled, there are plenty of folks involved with student activities that know what’s going on. No loss of momentum there at all.”

The Hobo Day Committee never used to have an adviser according to Hansen, who said that UPC used to help oversee the committee instead.

“2011 was the first year there was an actual adviser,” Hansen said. “Nick Wendell was the adviser from 2011 to 2017.” In 2018 there was also no adviser until Kerr started her position in 2019.

Hansen said that the challenge with getting a new adviser may be that the person for the job might be brand new to the Hobo Day committee. “There’s just a lot of information to learn,” she said.

“It will be great to have an adviser, so the other folks helping out can focus more on their own jobs,” Burggraff said. “But there is no slowing down to Hobo Week, even though the adviser position is vacant.”

Hansen said that she does a lot. 

“For my assistants and I, it feels like a full-job. We’ve been working really hard.”

Burggraff says he’s helped the Hobo Day Committee, along with Jack Richards, the adviser for university programs, and Cara Olsen, the assistant director of student activities. 

“I look to my leaders that I oversee, Jack and Cara and Vic,” Burggraff said. “They have been doing fantastic work, and I put all the credit to them.”

Sophomore agronomy major from Warren, MN, Annika Magnusson did not know that the Hobo Day Committee had no adviser. “I think they’ll do a good job. I feel like every year they do a good job,” Magnusson said.

Grand Pooba Activities & Hobo Day Traditions

“My job is mostly to be the main spokesperson in all really official capacities,” Hansen said. 

The committee also does a lot of budgeting. “We have to apply for funding through the Student Association GAF Fund.”

Hansen runs some retreats as well. “We have a spring retreat and a fall retreat for the committee members. There are 18 of us,” Hansen said. ”In the spring, we get to know each other, know our strengths. In the fall, we hit the ground running with planning and making forms that people have to sign. It’s a weekend long and focuses on leadership training program operations.

With her position, Hansen also has the opportunity to teach people to drive the Bummobile. “It used to be a crank start,” Hansen said, “The pedals are the opposite of a normal car. The gas is on the left, and the brake is on the right. It’s a 112-year-old car, and that’s how they used to make the Model T’s.”

Hansen said she enjoys being part of the Hobo Day Committee

“We get to do a lot of fun stuff that no other student organizations get to do,” Hansen said.

Morgan Townshend, a senior AgSpire Science major from Plymouth, MN, said, “The parade is my favorite part. I’ve watched the parade for the last two years.”

“Hobo Day is just so unique in the fact that SDSU is not the biggest college out there, but we have this huge tradition that everyone knows and comes back to town for,” Hansen said. “When people see us out in our buttons, or out in the Bummoblie, they get excited! Sharing our common love of Hobo Day and the university is so cool. I love going to alumni events and talking to people who graduated in the 70’s.”

This is what inspired Hansen to get involved with the Hobo Day Committee and run for Grand Pooba in the first place. “I just wanted to keep doing that!”