By: Gina Carfagno~Staff Writer~
The Student Government Association (SGA), X-TREME Fans and several other organizations are debuting a new campus tradition: 1831 Week.
This week is coordinated under the direction of junior Thomas Edney and senior SGA Executive Keenan Collins.
1831 Week is designed to bring together the Xavier community through a series of events promoting school pride. In future years, 1831 Week will be a collaboration between SGA, X-TREME Fans and the Xavier Alumni Center.
However, organizers of this year’s 1831 Week will not be reaching out to alumni so that student organizations can work out for how the week can best be executed before involving another group in the Xavier community.
SGA Executives Drew Dziedzic, Keenan Collins and Markus Lasky developed the idea during their campaign for office last year.
SGA reached out to X-TREME Fans to create a Xavier spirit week in order to engage students, foster more campus traditions and encourage positive school spirit.
The week is named after a club associated with the Annual Fund called the 1831 Society.
The members of the 1831 Society are alumni, family and friends of the university who directly impact the amount of money Xavier is able to offer students through financial aid.
The events will include the 1831 Week semi-formal dance, held by the Student Activities Council (SAC) on Feb. 1, a performance and discussion by Rohinal Malik called “Unveiled” and a T-shirt swap.
“Unveiled” is a performance set up by Alternative Breaks focusing on the roles of Muslim women in a post-9/11 world and will be held on Feb. 4.
The T-shirt swap on Feb. 6 is an event where students can bring T-shirts from other colleges and exchange them for a Xavier T-shirt.
In addition to the listed events, there will also be a Xavier basketball ticket campout. This campout will take place on the final day of 1831 Week for tickets to the men’s game against Providence on Feb. 8. The campout will include a raffle with prizes for participating students.
This campout is intended to fill the void left by the one that once took place before the Crosstown Classic game each year.
The Hoff Dining Commons will also be holding free breakfast for the first 500 students on the morning of the game.
SGA and X-TREME Fans hope that more clubs will be involved with the week in the future. “I think we really hope to create a larger sense of community at Xavier by showcasing the events that these organizations can hold for students,” Edney said. “I think it also shows how all of these large organizations on campus can come together to create one big tradition and one big experience for Xavier.”
“We are only here for four years, so let’s make it the best experience we can have,” Collins said.
1831 Week starts with the men’s basketball against Seton Hall on Feb. 1 and ends with the men’s basketball game against Providence on Feb. 8.
The full schedule for 1831 Week will be posted on SGA’s website at http://www.xavier.edu/sga.