As midterm season comes to a close and the holiday season begins, Greek Life is getting festive. The university Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council have been preparing for this year’s Halloween Bash, according to Panhellenic President and junior member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority Kristen Flores.
Since the beginning of the semester, plans for a Halloween-themed maze called the Haunted HAWC had been in the works, but after a series of setbacks they scaled back to create the Halloween Bash, which Flores described as an all-Greek and HRL mixer. The Bash will be a movie night held on the Lacrosse Field on Wednesday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Although the Panhellenic Council and IFC are planning the event, Flores emphasized that the bash is not a competition between Greek groups and that the entire campus is welcome and encouraged to attend. She said she hopes that rather than participating only with their respective Greek groups, the students will mingle with members of other sororities and fraternities and with those who are not Greek affiliated.
“It’s a good way for the Greek community to reach out to the whole Pepperdine community,” senior member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority Alyssa Alaniz-Smith said. She said the Bash will be a good way for students to spend time with other Greek groups from which they may have drifted away. Alaniz-Smith added that she thinks it will be positive for all groups to be represented, as opposed to philanthropies in which one sorority or fraternity holds the event.
“We’re trying to give it a movie-in-the park feel, like the Hollywood Cemetery where they play a scary movie and people can bring food and drinks and their own blankets,” Flores said.
Flores said they are planning to play either “Hocus Pocus” or “Halloweentown High”, but are still working on licensing.
Among the reasons for the switch from the Haunted HAWC to the Halloween Bash were the absence of a Greek Life adviser, lack of necessary permits and an unset budget.
“This was easier with Alex Palmer, the former student organization coordinator for Greek life] leaving and not having a Greek adviser to do a three-day event that we hadn’t started planning,” said Danielle Brown, the graduate assistant and interim Student Organizations Coordinator for the period prior to the hiring of a new coordinator.
Brown is working alongside Director of Campus Recreation Doug Hurley to assist Flores and IFC President Joel Denning in planning the event and is overseeing the licensing of the movie.
Brown and Flores both said they believed that the three-day Haunted HAWC would be planned for next year, but that the Halloween Bash was a good idea for this fall’s event due to the constraints.
In addition to the movie being played, there will be a group costume contest that groups of five to seven students can sign up for, snacks such as popcorn and candy apples for purchase and Halloween and fall-themed decorations such as haystacks and pumpkins.
Editors Note: Amanda Salz, the author of this article, is a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at Pepperdine.
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