Photo courtesy of http://www.algomau.cs | SAC is hosting Xavier’s first Lip Sync Battle as a gender-inclusive event to promote a positive campus climate.
The Student Activities Council (SAC) invited the Xavier student body to join in its first ever Lip Sync Battle to maximize inclusivity on campus. University Spirit Committee member and chair member for the Lip Sync Battle Lauren Gierla spoke on SAC’s motivation and goals in hosting this event and offered details about how the event will be run.
Gierla said that Mr. Muskie, a male beauty pageant, was usually held during this time of year. However, SAC decided to forsake what it deemed a relatively exclusive event and launch the gender-inclusive event Lip Sync Battle.
With the changing campus climate, SAC wanted to deviate from gender exclusive events like Mr. Muskie, which had only been open to male students, as a response to efforts made to promote inclusivity on campus. Gierla said that SAC members reflected on how they were asking the student body to judge their peers and decided that Mr. Muskie wasn’t the most appropriate way to do that. However, students enjoyed the talent presented at Mr. Muskie and wanted to keep that.
After a couple of discussions, SAC members decided to take on the Lip Sync Battle project to encourage more inclusive events to be held on campus. Every Xavier club has been invited to participate in the event and potentially win money to put toward their club budgets.
The clubs will prepare a song with choreography to perform in the Gallagher Student Center Theater. Each club will be paired with a choreography coach from Xavier’s dance team and is required to rehearse together at least twice before the performance.
The clubs will perform their individual songs on stage. Three judges will then select the top three acts, and these acts will be asked to perform a random song on the spot to show off their improv skills.
“There will be no time to prepare, they’ll just have to get up there and do it,” Gierla said.
After the improv battle ends, audience members vote to rank the three acts first, second and third.
“I think it’s going to be a really, really cool show just to display all the different kinds of people we have on campus,” Gierla said.
Gierla said that SAC’s ultimate goal is to motivate other organizations to host community-fostering events like the Lip Sync Battle.
“More community: We want to foster that even more by bringing a bunch of clubs together to do something really fun and exciting,” Gierla said. “We also hope that everyone, whether you’re a freshman nursing major or a senior business major, no matter what you are, you’ll want to come to this.”
The Lip Sync Battle will be open to all Xavier students at no cost on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. in the Gallagher Theater.
By: Hyehyun Hwang ~Staff Writer~