The zombies are here.
These ones, however, do not feast on flesh; they walk mindlessly from class to class, through University Yard or Kogan Plaza, practically void of all emotion.
Believe it or not, Student Association elections injected a dose of excitement and energy that seemed to wake the walking dead on campus and return them to their human form.
From the colorful poster-lined walls of Phillips and Rome Halls and the Marvin Center to the campaigning, a sense of spirit was added to the student body last week. With the run-off election for SA President occurring today – the walls will soon be stripped, and the palm cards will be a thing of the past – it seems as though there is nothing that is coming up soon to excite the student body.
We need another event that can help bring students together and pump some much-needed energy into the fast approaching mid-term season.
GW hosted a bonfire Feb. 22 celebrating George Washington’s Birthday in University Yard, but its turnout lacked true University-wide representation. It hardly made me more excited for the centennial celebration than any other year’s George Washington birthday bonfire.
Basketball games rarely receive enough attention to garner campus-wide support, and Spring Fling, an event that brings together a large portion of the student body, isn’t until the middle of April. So the question remains: How can the University spark the student body’s interest to bring them together between now and then?
Plan something that cannot be avoided.
Why not sponsor a campus-wide celebration? Shut down the streets in front of Gelman Library, take over Kogan Plaza and pack it with students overflowing with spirit and excitement. We’ve seen how students show up for the annual spring chalking day. The University should channel that sort of commitment to making the campus cohesive and GW-focused for another day.
Student organizations and administrators, particularly the Center for Student Engagement, could work hand in hand to create a party fit for Washington himself; it just has to be something that students want to attend.
Now of course, this mix of GW’s best events probably couldn’t come together in the next few months, so campus groups and the University should start planning for a blowout event for next year.
The key to the election season’s appeal is a combination of appeasing the student’s political interests and putting them front and center. It is true that, despite the constant reminders, many do not vote and, to put it simply, do not care about the SA election, the candidates or the results. But even the most apathetic student cannot deny the surplus of excitement that accompanies election season.
Nothing that I have experienced at GW, so far, has been so unapologetically in-your-face, and that’s what makes elections so appealing. You can’t avoid the overwhelming sense of being a part of something other than collective misery over exams and research papers. Amidst the internships and city living, it takes just a few posters and three days’ worth of handouts to bring out the inner school spirit that lies dormant in all of us.
I am done walking through the masses of zombies; it is time to bring GW back to life, one spirit-filled blowout at a time.
The writer, a sophomore majoring in journalism, is a Hatchet columnist.
