By Elizabeth Haas, Contributing Writer

The Homecoming theme was ‘Cats in the Hat — a Dr. Seuss theme that found its way into the dining halls, parade and other campus activities for the weekend’s celebration. But it didn’t make it onto the Homecoming T-shirts.

Thompson Hall with fireworks in the background and the words “UNH Homecoming 2014” was displayed on this year’s Homecoming T-shirts at the University of New Hampshire.

For students, homecoming festivities began at 5 p.m. at Boulder Field last Friday with sausage subs, live music and the distribution of about 1,000 free T-shirts.

The T-shirts go fast. According to Campus Activities Board (CAB) member Adam Aasen, “they were gone by hour two.”

CAB is a student organization in charge of putting on free campus-wide events for students. Before the semester began the organizations plans for Homecoming festivities were already underway.

They coordinate the barbecue dinner with dining, hire a cider donut stand, run trivia and a raffle and contact other student organizations to provide additional entertainment. CAB is also in charge of designing the Homecoming T-shirts.

“Dr. Seuss has an insane copyright, ”Aasen said, explaining why the design did not reflect Homecoming’s Dr. Seuss theme. The T-Hall logo was a “last minute decision” after all previous Seuss-themed designs were rejected due to copyright violations.

This is the first UNH Homecoming under the new university shield logo. Even though the shirts displayed the old Thompson Hall logo, Aasen said CAB did not choose the design to remember the previous T-Hall logo. “It didn’t even cross our minds until people started asking us ‘did you do that on purpose?’”

Junior Christina Merrill likes “that they brought T-Hall back.” She sees the design as an “ode” to the old logo. Merrill is a member of the Student Committee On Popular Entertainment (SCOPE) which was in charge of the fireworks and bonfire Friday evening.

Senior Anna Wageling, also a member of SCOPE, said a lot of students were unhappy about the shield logo. For her, the T-shirts are a “nice way to remember” the T-Hall logo.

“What, are they trying to bring [T-Hall] back already?” was junior mechanical engineering major Liam Collins’ reaction to the design after the university logo change. He came to the event for the donuts. It had been a while since his last cider donut, and he “needed one.”

Camila Araujo is a junior exchange student from Brazil. This is her first semester at UNH and her first Homecoming. She has never had T-Hall as her university logo. For her, American Homecoming is “definitely new,” and her T-shirt is a souvenir of her time abroad.

University President Mark Huddleston arrived at Boulder Field after all of the T-shirts had been distributed. Though he was one of the major heads for changing the logo, he said, “T-Hall should always be part of the university.” He liked the design and found it “creative.”