30 October 2018
Quinita Thomas
The Student Life Office has planned another Halloween program for students, including off-campus events. Students will be able to participate in numerous Halloween activities available on campus. Student Life prioritizes providing activities for students during holidays such as the Halloween programs.
According to Stephen Cucchiara, the director of Student Activities and Community Service, this is the 5th annual Halloween program. Each year Student Life tries to expand the variety of activities for students.
“The students who work in Student Life observed that we as a department host programs during certain times of the year, including Halloween. They gathered some information from other students like their opinion surrounding activities during the days of Halloween.
“The ideas, thoughts, feelings and came to me and proposed the idea to have these events. This occurred back in 2014. Each year since, the students research ideas and gain student feedback to host Halloween-themed activities,” said Cucchiara.
“Sometimes we do the programming on the weekends, or start early, depending on what day Halloween falls on,” said Cucchiara. “Since it falls on a Wednesday, we’ll be starting the program on Oct. 25.” This program will continue throughout Oct. 31.
Starting on Oct. 25, Cucchiara says the Lookout on Cragmor has partnered with Student Life to host a cookie-decorating contest. Friday, Oct. 26, there will be a Murder Mystery dinner held at Clyde’s. All attendees have to solve the crime and figure out what happened, similar to the game of clue.
“On Saturday, Oct. 27, we’ve partnered with the Colorado Paranormal Investigation to do a ghost hunt of Main Hall,” said Cucchiara. “Then on the 30th, Hells Scream Haunted House hooked us up with some free tickets for students to attend. The free tickets are now gone, but students can still go.”
Other events for Halloween Week include a decorated lounge in the Student Life office where the Chancellor will be serving hot dogs, and a cosplay costume contest. Students are free to dress up and represent the character they choose. The students that get voted as having the best costumes or most unique will win some prizes at the event.
Cucchiara says that Student Life begins planning for these events ahead of time. For the Halloween program the planning began in the summer. The very minimum for planning is two to three months in advance.
Cucchiara says that each year is a success for Student Life. “When starting something new it is important for us to be patient to see if the events attract students. Then we judge the success. We generate events for the entire week, and hundreds of students show up for these events.”
Cucchiara also stated that students are relatively excited and positive about these events. “They’ll say things like “too bad Halloween is only once a year,” or that they wish we’d do more. All activities are free and unlimited to partake in. If students are looking for something to do over the weekend, or over the week, there are a variety of things for them to do.”
According to Cucchiara, UCCS data over the past five years demonstrated that students who get involved in co-curricular activities such as clubs organizations and campus events are more likely to achieve greater success in college, and feel a closer connection with the campus community.
“At UCCS, students have the opportunity to design what their experience would look like. They can, in that case, create what they would like to do. Student Life believes in what the outside of the classroom experience can do for a student’s college career. Our goal is to make these events engaging, fun, safe and educational for students. When it comes to Halloween programming, we want students to have engaging opportunities no matter the age, residential location, or any personal factors.”