Photo courtesy of Abigail Campbell
By Rachel Galatis
If it’s Friday, it must be fun.
“Free Fun Friday”, a weekly event where students participate in interactive activities, is just one of the weekday programs set up by the student government association programming committee to keep everyone engaged on campus during the pandemic.
The SGA programming committee is a student-run organization that helps plan a variety of events on campus, such as Fall Fest, Hilla-palooza, and Spirit Week.
Students can use the “Guidebook” app to view events that are happening on campus. The app updates frequently so students know events that are going to happen in advance.
The Guidebook app, which the Office of Student Engagement uses to post information about the programs, shows students which day events are going to be held, the time, and where. Students can use the app to add an event to their “schedule” which will send a reminder notification to their phones on the day of the program.
Lina Macedo, the associate director of campus programs, praised SGA for their hard work on putting these programs together.
“They have done an exceptional job in making sure there have been a variety of events for students which have been quite successful,” she said.
Some programs correlate to the day of the week and have a recurring theme. For example, “Motivation Mondays” can be used to describe the fitness-based agenda on that day. Some of the programs are called “Barre with Bridget,” “Zumba with Kolby,” and “Slow Flow Yoga with Kristen.”
Tuesday is a food truck day, and Thursday is a “pop-up venue” day.
The Fun Friday events are run in a “do it yourself” style and held outside so more students can participate together. The programs held included “DYO Chalkboards,” where students were able to use materials to decorate their own personal chalkboard, “Build-a-bear," which was a mock of the popular store Build-a-Bear workshop, and “airbrush/hats,” where students used air-brush tools to design hats and flags.
Photo courtesy of Abigail Campbell
Andie Long, a freshman, said the “airbrush” program was a nice stress reliever after a long week of midterm exams and being outside with her friends to do it was enjoyable.
“I wish more people would stay on the weekends and attend these events; they are so much fun!” she said.
There are about 1,600 students living on campus this fall, representing about 73% of the student body. Under new COVID-19 safety rules, students are no longer allowed to visit other residence halls and go home more on the weekends.
As a result, the school is trying to keep students engaged by hosting different programs throughout the week to make the campus more exciting.
“The main reason I choose Stonehill is that I knew there would always be something new and exciting happening. Every day here is a new adventure,” Long said.
Other programs held so far are outdoor movie nights and Spirit Week, which were held on the quad so people could practice social distancing.
Due to the new coronavirus protocols, the fitness programs are often held over Zoom. The only current in-person class is called “Yoga with Josh” on Thursdays and is held outside on the field next to W.B. Mason stadium so that the participants can spread out.
The theme on Tuesdays is “Food Truck Tuesdays,” where a cycle of three different food trucks rotate and come to campus around lunch time from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The trucks offer a unique type of cuisine, with the “Melt” truck menu based on different types of grilled cheese, the
“Chicken and Rice Guys” menu offering a select variety of rice bowls, and “Moyzilla” Asian fusion truck, which offers dumplings, noodles, and more.
The food truck program is designed to help limit the number of students in the other dining areas on campus. The dining areas are capacity based, and outdoor seating is encouraged.
Sodexo dining is not only in charge of planning “Food Truck Tuesdays,” but also “Pop-Up” Venues on Thursdays.
Holly Brennan, of the Sodexo Purchasing Department, said the “pop-up” venues were created to break up the momentum of the week and add something on a day where this isn’t much going on.
She said Tuesdays and Fridays are already used for other campus activities, so they picked Thursday to avoid interference with other programs.
“As a collective, the Sodexo management team came up with the idea and has determined what the offerings will be trying to keep with the weather, seasonal items, local products and just things that we don't typically offer (i.e. fried dough or the big pretzel),” she said.
The Sodexo dining team runs these programs independently from the school and have been very successful so far, Brennan said.
“Don't only look for pop up events on the quad, we do have a "pop up" item available daily in the bakery at the commons and have other spontaneous events around campus to keep an eye out for,” she said.
The bakery has a “dessert of the week” that changes weekly. The item for the week of Oct. 17 through the 24 is cheesecake.
Brennan encourages students to follow the @stonehillcollegedining Instagram page for updates on what is going on food wise on campus.
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