The week of March 4 – March 8 hosted the Fairfield’s annual Community Pride Week with a low participation rate amongst the student body.
Run by Inter-Residential Housing Association, Community Pride Week is, “Designed to encourage school spirit, building spirit and getting people to think of their community as a whole,” according to Dominic Paolino, president of IRHA.
The focus of this year was to create a community amongst the entire campus as opposed to solely within one’s residence hall, which had been the primary focus in prior years. IRHA wanted to encourage Fairfield pride.
Redesigning the event, however, did not encourage enough students to participate in the festivities. Paolino thought Community Pride Week just “wasn’t hyped up enough.”
Fairfield University Students Association president, Rob Vogel ‘13 believes the solution is all in social media. “Incorporating social media…is a huge thing,” he stated. “Information sharing is so important and across campus we don’t do as good of a job as we should,” which was apparent for Community Pride Week.
IRHA, though, felt that the event’s redesign was a step in the right direction as the week was received positively by those who did participate.
Associate director of IRHA, Charlie Sousa, felt these changes were both necessary and beneficial because in past years some of the events “Caused riffs between buildings so … changing the rules … was a good thing.”
The first change implemented was bringing back some popular events from past years, but altering some rules to incorporate more of a community atmosphere. The primary event that saw these changes was the STAGenger Hunt. This year the STAGenger Hunt allowed members from different residential buildings to form teams and answer featured questions that are more geared toward Fairfield and its history.
The other events that were included throughout the week were the Roommate Game, the Banner Contest, Coin Wars, and, Community Pride Week’s newest event, Duck My Life.
The Duck My Life game, was so well received that freshman Cassie Foxx proclaimed, “It was a great experience and I hope they do it again next year.”
Paolino stated he is “confident there will be [a Community Pride Week] next year.” Paolino and the rest of IRHA plan on improving the event’s marketing campaign, increasing advertising and revamping the events and games even more.
IRHA also plans on focusing even more on strengthening the Fairfield community as a whole and building relationships throughout the entire campus rather than creating only in one’s building.
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