The Homecoming committee started planning for this fall’s festivities Monday when it held its first meeting of the year. Homecoming week is scheduled for the week of Nov. 1.

After input from students and a few rounds of voting, the committee decided on “Shell Shock the Terps” as the slogan.

Adam Compton, chair of the Homecoming committee, said the slogan is still awaiting administrative approval. Compton said he was excited at the turnout at the meeting and wants to see Homecoming grow this coming year.

“I was happy to serve to a full room tonight. We’re starting early,” Compton said. “I’ve seen homecoming grow and I know the areas for growth.”

Compton said he has high hopes for this year’s Homecoming, and outlined his main objectives for the event.

“The three goals that I want homecoming to accomplish are to reach more students, touch more alumni and bring more awareness to campus,” Compton said.

After another round of voting, the committee also decided the Pack Howl’s theme this year will be alternative music.

The chairs of the committee said Homecoming should still include all the events students have grown accustomed to, despite the recession.

Mary Cline, publicity chair and freshman in the college of management and international studies, said the committee will have the same events it has had in years past, but will have to use novel ways to attain funding.

“We are still doing everything that we did before, we just have to be really creative this year and think about things that don’t cost as much money,” Cline said.

Jessica Thurman, a sophomore in business management, also said finding alternative funding strategies and early planning was imperative for Homecoming to be successful.

“We’re just going to plan ahead on cheap, but efficient things. We just may have to cut corners,” Thurman said. “We certainly have to plan early.”

Thurman said she was excited about competitions and the upcoming service project the committee is planning.

“We incorporate competition into everything,” Cline said. “For this year I’m probably most excited about trying to do some kind of day of service.”

Cline said she is working on promoting this event and publicizing it to campus in many different ways.

“It’s going to be a lot easier publicizing now that we have the theme,” Cline said. “The Free Expression Tunnel will be completely painted, we are putting up flyers and sending e-mails to all different list serves.”