By Sarah Pfander

Gargoyle assistant editor


Posted Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007, The OG, news

A GREAT DEAL of the minutes sent out to the student body from a recent Student Council meeting focused on a new event called “Class Wars.”

In the spirit of X-Week, Isaac Chambers, the sophomore class president and brains behind the idea, has created a new outlet for class competition and nonprofit fund-raising.

What is it?

Class Wars will be a series of competitions sponsored by Student Council that will take place throughout April. Class officers will organize and run two contests apiece, and students will be given the opportunity to participate in competitions such as a Twister contest, a poetry contest, a debate contest, a cooking contest, an Ultimate Frisbee tournament, and others.

The nature of the competition will determine who participates. Competitions like photography will be open to an unlimited number of students. Each interested student will submit their work to a specified teacher or class officer before the set deadline.

However, other competitions will need to be restricted to a select group. Examples include the eating contest, which will be limited to a small number of students due to time and resource constraints.

According to Chambers, participants in closed competitions will most likely be selected by class vote or appointed by class officers. However, a first-come first-served system may be put in place.

Participants with a first-, second-, or third-place finish in any competition will earn points for their class. While student participation is the primary focus of Class Wars, teacher competitions are also being considered.

The faculty sponsors of each class will compete, and the winning representative will also gain points for his or her class. At the end of the wars, the class with the most points will be declared the winner.

“The final award for the winning class is yet to be decided,” says Chambers. “We were thinking a trophy in the hallway as a small part of the award. In addition, we are thinking that the winning class will get to choose which nonprofit charity they would like the X-Week and Class Wars money to go to.”

What's the point?

According to Chambers, these competitions were created in order to promote class unity, benefit charity, and provide entertainment for the school. But it's not clear that the entire student body is unified behind the idea.

“Mostly I think it is just a lot of work for nothing,” says Student Council president and senior Sharajonnie Adams. “Isaac brought this idea to Student Council at the beginning of the year, and we're still talking about it six months later; yet, nothing has happened.”

Other people are even more ambivalent.

“It's a good idea, and I like the fact that it includes charity,” says junior Jessica Stark. “But, knowing Uni students, no one is going to get excited about these Class Wars. If no one cares, these contests won't work. People won't have fun, and there will be very few participants. The point will be lost.”

“If people are apathetic, then I agree that the Class Wars may not work as well,” says Chambers in response to these criticisms. “But that's the point of having a large variety of competitions. Hopefully everyone can find something they're interested in and excited about.”

Nevertheless, Class Wars promises to be a new and different experience for Uni students this year. Look for Gargoyle coverage of the competitions this coming April.

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