Written by Cianna Jay // Photo by Balazs Balassa
Campus Life annually organizes various events and theme days throughout I Heart HU Week, the week leading up to Homecoming weekend. Campus Life offered a daily dress-up theme to help students easily connect to the celebrations, and the student with the best outfit of the day won a gift card.
“I like having something small for every day,” Campus Life director Abby Stinnett said. “There’s still something going on and something that just kind of keeps people active and involved throughout the entire week, just keeping that energy leading up to Homecoming.”
This year’s events included the Midnight Madness pep rally to kick off the basketball season last Monday night, a spooky version of Late-Night Caf bingo on Tuesday, waffles in the Student Center on Wednesday and an all-campus trunk-or-treat on Thursday afternoon. The event today will be the 3K Glow Run in Bison Park at 8 p.m.
The glow run is a collaboration with Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL), which Stinnett said aligned with Campus Life’s goal of using I Heart HU Week to collaborate with groups and organizations across campus.
The Thursday trunk-or-treat played a part in achieving this goal of campus collaboration, as representatives from social clubs and organizations across campus had trunks and tables set up and participants were encouraged to dress in costume. Involvement in the event ranged from dorm families to incoming and current students.
“It’s super easy for people to be a part of and to get to know your community around you,” Stinnett said.
Junior Lisanne Cheatham, Campus Life social media director, said it’s fun to see students dressed up in costumes for the trunk-or-treat, and participation from students helps make these events more enjoyable.
“I think it makes the events fun if people participate,” Cheatham said. “Everything’s very light-hearted. … Every event we put on is a good time, and we just want people to come and bring their friends and make it even better.”
Senior Coleman Bevill, Campus Life co-activity director, helped plan the I Heart HU Week events and said he hopes students will gain an overall positive feeling about Harding because of the activities.
“As a student, a lot of times all you think about are the bad things that Harding is doing,” Bevill said. “But you’re here because you chose to be here and … you chose it because it’s a good place to be. And once your four years are up, or however long it takes you to graduate, you’re gonna look back on it, and you’re gonna think, as most alumni do, ‘Oh man, chapel wasn’t fun at the time, but I kind of miss it. All those little moments, I didn’t really realize they were really fun until after I was gone.’ So, I just hope that we can create some of those little moments for people.”
