This Saturday on 9/11, 568 Eastern Michigan University students and staff attended the first Campus Bash held at the Student Center from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Campus Bash is an on campus event first conceived in April 2010 by the Residence Hall Association to get more residents, particularly those living in the residence halls, to stay on campus during the weekends.
Mallory Apel, president of the RHA, said, “People have this perception that we are a luggage school because people always go home on the weekends. That is something we, as an organization, wanted to change.”
The highlights of Campus Bash included a free cookout, a 9/11 memorial, a D.J., Ladderball and an 8:30 p.m. screening of “MacGruber.” The most successful highlight of the night was the T-shirt station where a thick line of students braved the long wait to get their free T-shirts tie-dyed.
“When I was a freshman, we went through orientation, and that was great,” said Apel. “We had the first days of classes with all this excitement. Then the first weekend came and it was a let-down. It’s to guarantee we’re not boring, I promise.”
First-year roommates living in Phelps, Anthonya Wilson and Rasheeda Lindsay arrived at Campus Bash where they heard about it word-of-mouth. Short hours before they arrived at Campus Bash, they were knocking on people’s doors of the First Year Center trying to find something to do.
“I like it. I have a reason to stay now, instead of going back and forth to my mom’s house,” Wilson said. “When we were knocking on people’s doors to say ‘hi’ and we see a lot of people we said ‘hi’ to.”
The RHA partnered with Campus Life to incorporate the screening of MacGruber into the program. Campus Bash and the movie were originally going to be held outside, but both were held indoors because of the rain. The only thing that was modified from the originals plans was the 9/11 memorial ceremony.
“This event was a success,” Apel said. “I was not expecting this many people because of the rain. We [originally] expected 800 because it is something new. We spread it more so word-of-mouth this year because we didn’t know the best way.”
“They should have told more people,” Lindsay said. “People we were knocking the doors of, didn’t know what was happening. It’s like why are you here if there’s nothing to do? One of my friends told me. We called him out of boredom. We went to Sellers, too. A lot of people are still in there, not knowing what’s happening.”
Apel said, “We talked to R.A.s before school started and let them know what was going on this year. I talked to a lot of student organizations at Fajita Fest [to come to Campus Bash] saying it’s a great way to hang out with your organization.
“We are going to collaborate a lot this year with the R.A.s because it is something we haven’t really done in the past.”
The RHA originally planned for people to write personal messages on red, white or blue paper to be put in orbs that would be released on the lake outside the Student Center. Because of the rain, the RHA will be collecting the orbs to make an American flag out of it. They hope to have it done by Monday and display it for the public.
Dominique Carter, a third-year student who heard about the event one hour before it happened said, “It’s actually pretty nice. They have free food, they’re giving out free stuff and they have a chill environment playing music. It’s welcoming. I’ve been here for 45 minutes. I can’t say there’s anything lacking.”
The RHA represents all the students living in residence halls. RHA is composed of all the Leadership Advisory Board on campus. Campus Life is responsible for offering EMU sponsored activities for the EMU community.
To promote staying on campus during the weekend, staff of Campus Bash passed out fliers of future events and excursions.
“It’s like, here is your first step, what’s your next step?” Apel said.
