All around campus this week, students have switched out their hoodies and Patagonias to don spooky get-ups to celebrate Halloween. The Campus Activities Board (CAB) has worked to match students’ Halloween spirit by hosting a variety of events—from haunted houses to scary movies—around Boston College’s campus.
Bridget Miller, assistant director of campus engagement for CAB and MCAS ’24, said that students this semester are pining to get back to on-campus social events as COVID-19 restrictions lessen.
“I would say it hasn’t necessarily been challenging to get people excited, just because I think everyone has been dying to get back involved and get connected,” Miller said.
Miller said the challenge of planning on-campus activities this semester emerges from the lack of experience the student body has had with BC traditions.
“[CAB] has been working to make sure that traditions last and that people understand the significance behind them, in a sense,” Miller said. “And I think that we just have to continue pushing, and that our marketing and promo for them gets people excited.”
One way CAB is taking action to counter the confusion facing the post-COVID student body is by not only bringing back traditional events like this week’s Ice Jam, but by introducing new ones as well, Miller said. One of these new events is the Monster Mash, an on-campus dance.
“We’ve been planning this for weeks and weeks, and so I’m very, very excited because this is our first ever big Halloween dance and to my knowledge, it’s the first dance that’s ever happened on BC’s actual campus,” Miller said.
CAB is anticipating over 1,000 students to attend, Miller said. Hosted in the Mac Courts in the Margot Connell Recreation Center this Friday, Monster Mash will have a DJ, photo booth, costume contest, and spooky-themed desserts and beverages. The success of this event, Miller said, could also lead to changes for on-campus activities in the future.
“We are really hoping that this event goes well, and if it does go well, then [we’re] exploring the option of continuing doing big dances and maybe collaborating with other student organizations to continue to put on these events while we are still working under the mask guidelines,” she said.
Besides Monster Mash, CAB hosted their annual haunted house “Buried Alive” event on Monday on Stokes Lawn. CAB also held a movie showing of Venom in Fenway Park on Thursday.
“We thought this would be a great weekend to actually put something on that we as students would also want to go down to, and that was the starting point,” Miller said.
Featured Image by Leo Wang / Heights Senior Staff
