It's not that I don't like our ResFest, which is how we at my University refer to our battle of the residence halls. I simply do not like what it has become, nor do I enjoy knowing that it could be done so much differently. 8 years ago, when the battle of the dorms was brought back to HU, the then-Dean of Residence Life had a very adversarial mindset. Rather than promoting unity at the university he chose to mold a week of events pitting residence halls against each other in a way reminiscent of professional sports. The slogans reinforced this: "The Ultimate Competition," "This Ain't a Game," "This Time, it's For Keeps," "blah blah blah..."
Since then, despite the fact that he moved on to greener pastures, the spirit of what I like to call "unhealthy competition" has remained. During ResFest, people cry. They whine. They get angry. They curse at each other. Shouting matches escalate into physical altercations. There are both sore winners and sore losers. And yet we continue to host these events every year.
So far this year we have only had our game night and our flag football competition. But they've provided small glimpses of what is to come. It's almost as though we put a veneer over the department every year for ResFest, and slowly but surely the cracks are beginning to show. It has become almost a tradition that the all-male hall I run gets into some sort of altercation with the other all-male hall on campus. Oh it hasn't been pretty. And it's already started this year. I hope that with my presence I can keep my guys in line, and nothing serious happens this year. I don't have the patience for it.
I don't want anyone to think that I have only a negative view of ResFest. I loved it in the very beginning, and even later when I couldn't participate because of law school. I just want it to be fun again. I want us all to compete in the nature of friendly competition because that's all this is. No one goes pro in ResFest. I understand wanting to win but in this case there's nothing on the line except pride, and pride goeth before the fall...
Let's have fun, everyone.
Legal Note: Opinions in this post are my own and not representative of the university I work for or the people I work under. All suppositions, presumptions, theories, hypotheses, etc. are my own. This blog is for entertainment purposes only, blah blah blah. There are purposely no names included in this post, and I have revealed nothing that violates either general expectations of privacy or the University confidentiality agreement, which, actually... I never signed anyway. All of that is to say...don't be trying to sue me.
