Thunder Cup provides competition, fellowship

“May the best hall prevail” is the new motto for Thunder Cup, a yearlong competition between residence halls.

Justin Stubbs, vice president of Registered Student Organizations, was given the opportunity to develop a fun inter-hall competition.

“I have been working tirelessly for the past two years to work out the details” Stubbs said. “I think students will take more pride in their hall, and hopefully they will want to stay on campus.”

Stubbs said he believes that Thunder Cup could have the ability to change the face of GCSU.

“Eventually I want to see halls have permanent colors” Stubbs said. “So when you go to an athletics event, you will see groups of people supporting their hall by wearing their colors.”

The Thunder Cup competition opened Sept. 11 at a GCSU soccer game. More than 60 students participated to win points for their halls. The next official Thunder Cup event will be held during Alcohol Awareness Week. The Resident Student Association will be showing “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Oct. 7 between Parkhurst and Foundation halls. A stamp will show students it is an official Thunder Cup event.

President of RSA Katie Dunn is hopeful for a large turnout at the movie showing.

“My hopes for the success of Thunder Cup are that halls will come together and students will remain within housing,” Dunn said.

An attempt at forming a competition a few years ago failed because it was created to revolve around sports. Thunder Cup has nine areas of competitions and a 10th area for a tie. This will allow all students an opportunity to earn points for their halls.

Each residence hall will be a team, as well as buildings 100 through 400 and buildings 500 through 600 at West Campus.

The nine areas of competition are: intramurals, academics, service, fine arts, athletics, wellness, on-campus program involvement, community involvement and eco-awareness. The 10th area in case of a tie will be leadership.

Stubbs has created an easy way for each student to earn points. At every official Thunder Cup event, there will be someone to swipe Bobcat Cards.

Larry Christenson, executive director of University Housing, was asked by Dr. Bruce Harshbarger to implement an inter-hall competition. Christenson then took it to RSA where Stubbs was put in charge of creating the details.

The long-term goal for this project is that each hall have traditions: mottos, mascots and colors. Eventually, students will wear their hall’s color T-shirt to freshmen convocation. Christenson wants students to have an attachment to their halls.

The winner will be awarded the Thunder Cup trophy. Stubbs wants to be able to put the trophy in the clock tower overlooking the reflection pool on campus and have lights shining on the trophy, but this idea is still in the planning stages.

“It’s not about the trophy,” Christenson said. “It’s about team rivalry, participation and people just having a good time interacting.”

The Board of Directors, which consists of members form SGA, RSA and CAB, will decide in advance what events will be official Thunder Cup events. Every advertised event will have the official Thunder Cup stamp.

Part of the mission statement for Thunder Cup reads, “it is to encourage residents and students to work hard and be loyal, in turn, benefiting themselves, the residents, the staff, university, and community at large.”

Check out the Facebook group for more information on the Thunder Cup competition and upcoming events.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 25 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry