If my previous columns stirred up some controversy, I apologize in advance for the waves I am about to make.
Let’s take a moment to talk about school spirit at Stevens. Truthfully, in the past few years, I haven’t seen a lot of it. There are groups at Stevens such as the SGA and Gear and Triangle that like to host events to try to boost school spirit and morale. Good for them—they are trying really hard to motivate and instill pride into the rest of the student body who often falls into the endless cycle of pessimism and un-enthusiasm, a group of people I seem to have been representing a bit this semester.
But, from the perspective of other students, these attempts really feel like a ruse. When I see the RAGE events happening, I scoff. I see everyone smiling and having fun, but I don’t get that vibe of genuine school spirit. I feel like everyone is trying too hard, which takes away from the authenticity of being proud of Stevens. (Many are likely weighed down by some of the things I have mentioned in other columns. There is a lot at Stevens to be upset about that can often outweigh the happy feelings.)
I am bringing this up because it was a point of contention between Matt Hunt and Vinny Raimondi during the SGA Presidential Debate, and I was really upset that the debate ran so long and that I had to leave halfway through. Hunt and Raimondi have differing and strong feelings about RAGE, Techfest, and Boken.
Before I continue, I am going to reiterate something: I said “in the past few years” in regards to school spirit—I, and fellow five-year students, can recall Boken of the Living Dead, which, in my mind, was literally one of the coolest things I had ever been a part of at Stevens. It was crazy, exhilarating, and spread out. It was also totally disruptive to campus activities, but I don’t think I minded that much back then. Some people didn’t like it; “this is childish,” they said, but oh well. You can’t please everyone.
Boken of the Living Dead really sung to me in terms of what Boken should be, and how it should be viewed by students on campus: It was pervasive, and practically everyone knew about it. It was long, taking the course of a school week and involved a lot of different clubs connected to a common theme, with prizes and rewards for the overall event.
Sound familiar? Oh look, that is the formula for RAGE! The same exact thing, but the consistent theme is “Stevens is great!”
I find it interesting to note that, after Boken of the Living Dead, Boken sort of faded off the map. It got smaller, it was a little broader, but involved less clubs, and usually had some eclipsing event (go figure, this was after the “success” of Return to Glory, the Techfest of 2012). So, what I can infer from all of this is that somehow Techfest 2012 was seen as a success, when it totally wasn’t, turning off many, many RSO leaders and replacing a line of small events with a big “all-encompassing” event that honestly scares me away every time, because screw dance parties and concerts. The SGA and Gear and Triangle, or whatever committee is formed to manage Boken, restructured Boken to mirror the new Techfest. Both suffered, and to increase school spirit, someone “invented” (recycled old Boken, rather) RAGE, which was Boken, but without an interesting enough theme.
Okay, so, how to fully tackle this problem…
Old Bokens were successful because they had these themes that had everyone get together for. By reaching out to RSOs to host themed events, someone in the Anime Club watching some themed anime could feel a mild connection with the campus, who had other RSOs like IUA hosting some sort of appreciation event of the same theme. This is obviously an exaggeration, but the concept is what matters. A single-event concert can only draw people who like concerts. Two smaller events from two different clubs, connected by a common theme, draw a larger audience, once you incorporate more RSOs, of course. If there is any success to RAGE events, it is this.
However, we had that in the old Bokens a lot more than in RAGE, whose theme, as I have said before, is to unify students in pride of our school. It is unnecessary. I felt more a part of the Stevens Community cornering survivor Shane Arlington in the Hayden Parking lot with a horde of fellow zombies than I ever have in my four-and-a-half years of being a student here.
I am fine with Techfest being as it is, a one to two-day event with a big concert or something. That’s fine. It could be better, but whatever. RAGE should go away, and we should get back our old Boken. They are literally the same thing, except Boken had a legacy of being awesome, and RAGE is new and borrowing too many ideas from old Boken. If you got a good theme together, and built a week long festival around it, I guarantee that people will be happier than some stupid concert that can only appeal to so many students.
I feel like everyone gets so focused on doing RAGE, Techfest, or Boken just because we should have it, but don’t really focus on how to optimize school spirit from these series of events. I know that very soon there is going to be an open meeting with the SGA regarding the fate of Boken for this academic year. If you want to do something about the state of lack of school spirit, please attend. The open meeting is scheduled to take place on December 6. Like all SGA meetings, it’s on a Sunday night at 7 p.m. in BC 122.
