By Izzy Surles

Resident Adviser (RA) events have been happening every week this semester. West Hall’s RAs have hosted two big events only four weeks into the year, with more to come.

On September 11, West Hall RAs Bryson Carter and Patrick Flisher hosted one of Resident Life’s biggest events yet: a Cornhole Tournament featuring Spikeball.

“My favorite part of planning the cornhole event was trying to figure out the best way to get students involved,” Bryson commented.

Carter and Flisher are both newer RAs, having started last year. They enjoyed planning this event, from the early planning to the final outcome.

“What kind of snacks do we get? Should we have it inside or outside? What is going to attract
people?” Carter recalled them discussing. “It was fun to strategize and plan things to attract
student attention.”

And attract people they did! This event brought in about 56 people.

“It was really exciting!” Carter said about the attendance. “I think that is what helped a lot with why the event was so successful is because we think differently, but we both think efficiently. It was really exciting to be able to work with him [Flisher] on this event and see it be so successful and get a lot of people out of their dorms and
hanging out with their fellow hallmates.”

Carter reflected on being able to plan such a successful event as RAs with such different circles on campus, bringing in so many typically unconnected people.

“It was really exciting to see a lot of people out there,” he said. “Because we were out there, other people were out there throwing footballs and kicking soccer balls and hanging out. So it was really cool – even though they were not necessarily there for the program, they still signed in, they still got some snacks and they were still hanging out with us.”

Carter said that they chose to combine the cornhole tournament with Spikeball because they are both games people enjoy playing, and while cornhole can be difficult to keep score on, Spikeball is not. People play Spikeball around campus all the time; having it available for an event can bring in all of those people. Carter said he is “overly satisfied” with the outcome of his and Flisher’s event, and residents feel the same way.

“They were still outside and hanging out with us and getting to know fellow members of their halls. I think that is pretty much the goal of the program,” Carter recalled about the community and connection this event fostered and looks forward to seeing this same community in future events.

Res Life has many more exciting events to come for this semester so be sure to be on the lookout on their Instagram and around campus for what is up next.