If you were to walk on Tech Green right now, what do you expect to see? Maybe some students relaxing on the grass, some people tossing a frisbee around or even a student on a slackline on special occasions. How about two students sprinting, jumping and working their way through an inflatable obstacle course, two students attempting to knock each other down using jousts or a pyramid of students topped with someone smashing an egg on their face? That is exactly what Tech Green had to offer on Tuesday, Nov. 5, as part of the Homecoming Carnival.
The carnival, along with many other Homecoming events, was organized by the Student Center Programs Council (SCPC). SCPC plans, hosts and judges several Homecoming events including the Homecoming Kickoff and Banner painting. Arya Kirpekar, fourth-year ID, is SCPC Festivals Chair and helped plan the carnival.
“It’s a completely free event for students. We have snacks, crafts and activities. We have some inflatables and bungee jumping. It’s really just a fun place for students to come together and hang out, get a little treat and some fun between classes,” Kirpekar said.
SCPC also organizes the campus-wide Homecoming competition which encourages healthy rivalry between different student organizations, including fraternities and sororities.
The Homecoming Carnival is one part of the competition that allows organizations to gain points for their team by participating in different games against people from other student organizations. Kaeli Lawrence, second-year PUBP, is the Homecoming Chair for SCPC and helped with the planning of the entire week.
“The competition side [of the carnival] includes around 40 student organizations that are competing in an obstacle course. There are four legs to it, and one of them is the inflatable course. We also have events like a three-legend race and a mummy wrap,” Lawrence said. “The most popular competition is the egg toss. We have a pyramid-style egg toss, where six people are on the pyramid, one person is lying in front of the pyramid, and the last person is running the eggs around.”
Naya Powell, fifth-year NEURO, and Cierra Langer, second-year ID & PSYCH, competed in the egg toss together, an event where people on a pyramid catch eggs thrown at them and pour their contents into a small container held by another team member several feet below.
“We practiced a lot before competing. We practiced egg cracking,” Langer said.
Powell and Langer take the student organization competition very seriously so they did not reveal too much about their mindset for the egg toss. “We can’t tell you our strategy. No one can know our secret. I will tell you an anti-strategy. It’s not helpful to smash it in your hand because then the egg is too distant [far from the bucket]. You need to get it all disintegrated,” Powell said.
Not everyone had such a positive experience with the egg toss. Dylan Mount, first-year BME, competed in the egg toss with his team and got a little messy in the process. “I hate this. I got egg on my favorite pants,” Mount said. Mount still had confidence in his team and their place in the competition. “I think we can win. Our cup is almost full,” Mount said.
SCPC definitely had hearts pounding and adrenaline pumping for students racing through the obstacle course and jousting one-on-one, but for those not interested in physical competitions, SCPC still had plenty for them to do. Kashvi Mundra, fourth-year CS, was drawn to the many arts and crafts SCPC had for students to enjoy, including ring-making, featuring a rainbow of options for stones and crystals.
“I just really liked the color because it looks like a crystal of some kind. I wanted a ring that matches with some of my outfits, so I chose this color specifically,” Mundra said.
Students were not just able to pick the color of the stone but also create the band of the ring themselves. “I wanted to put a nice design around it instead of just a regular band,” Mundra said.
Ring-making was not the only creative outlet for students at the carnival. They could also make buttons and pins to add to their gameday outfits for Homecoming, with designs featuring Buzz and Tech Tower.
The carnival is one of the biggest SCPC Homecoming events, drawing all crowds of students — not just those participating in the student organization competition. While Homecoming Week may have come to an end, the festivities are not over. SCPC is hosting the annual Homecoming Concert on Tuesday, Nov. 19.