Lizzie Frazier, junior teaching English as a second language major, said the residence life staff were trying to “revamp” the event by having more activities.
“We’re trying to do a lot more games and activities this year,” Frazier said. “So we have the hayride, and also bonfires outside in which people can sit around while waiting for the hayride to come around. So we definitely are trying to expand just a little bit more this year.”
Even regular attenders said this year is particularly special, not only because of the amount of people who showed up, but because of the sense of community the event brings.
Jacob Kirkland, senior sports management and exercise science major, said he believes that events like these bring people together for a night to be themselves.
“I think it’s a great time for us [Union] students to get together, have fun, dress up and be crazy with each other,” Kirkland said. “It’s always a good time.”
Caleb Wagler, senior nursing major, said he enjoys being able to get out of his room for a while and see everybody having fun.
“Being a nursing major, I almost never have time to do fun things,” Wagler said. “Tonight showed me what I was missing out on, even though it’s kind of hard to tell who is under the mask. But I definitely have enjoyed my time out of my room and seeing everyone enjoy themselves.”
The women’s residential staff put in hours of work and planning to make sure the event was a success. Quinlan Draper, junior social work major and the resident staff adviser for the women’s quads, said everyone’s effort was needed to pull off this event.
“We’ve been planning for two weeks now, and planning for a large portion of the student body takes a lot of food and planning,” Draper said. “I was a part of last year’s planning, and I think this year we had some new ideas, new games and we also have the improv team performing, which is new. And we also have Dub judging the costume competition.”
Draper said even though Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver is the busy president of a campus with more than 4,000 students, he was very happy and eager to be a part of the night.
“A simple email was sent to him, and literally within an hour, he responded back, enthusiastically,” Draper said. “We were so excited that he was willing to participate in tonight’s costume competition.”
This year’s award for best costume won points for the individual’s dorm building. There were many different categories in which people could enter such as large group and small group. Each individual category gave away different points. Individual costume went to Allison Hearn, senior theater major, for her “Queen of Hearts” costume. The large group winner was a group of seniors who dressed as characters from the movie “Up.”
