In honor of National Pretzel Day, April 27, the Gorilla Activities Board (GAB) handed out free pretzels for passing students. They had their table set up in the rotunda of the Crossland Technology Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to hand out free pretzels and cheese sauce.
Building a campus community involves more than sports games or parties. Every event contributes to the culture and sense of community on campus. This is easier to do with all the buildings on the main campus, but harder with the buildings further from the main campus and can make them feel disconnected from the rest of campus.
Julie Dainty, a professor in the Crossland Technology Center, said, “It’s really wonderful to have GAB come to the Technology Center because a lot of times, being off of main campus, we don’t always get a lot of the activities in out building.”
GAB hosting an event like this was a way to bridge that gap between the main campus and the buildings further away, which will be even more important in the future. “Because we’re a little bit further, and there being a new Kelce business college, I think that’s probably going to be a challenge for the activities board to look at how you can expand to other buildings because it really does help include others in [campus] culture,” Dainty said.
Jess Kroenke, a junior studying interior design, said the campus does well in keeping events relevant for the students. “I feel like most of the events that GAB throws do well… they always take into consideration things students would actually enjoy doing,” Kroenke said.
Part of the decision process for events like these is looking at a calendar and seeing if anything pops out as a good opportunity for an event. “We just looked at a calendar and saw that it was National Pretzel Day, and we all wanted to do something with pretzels because I mean, who doesn’t love pretzels,” Emilio Cereceres said. Cereceres is one of the programming chairs of GAB, and a sophomore studying nursing.
Sometimes, for a successful event, doing something simple is best; especially if food is involved. “We think about something simple, for example, on a pretzel day or another food related day and involve the executive team and start planning, looking for a location, and all of that,” Cereceres explained.
Allie Gregg is a freshman studying history, and came to the event with her friend Maxwell Jennings, a sophomore triple majoring in computer science, math, and Spanish. According to Jennings, he and Gregg came from the main campus just to attend the event. “My good friend Ali mentioned the event, and it wasn’t that out of my schedule, so I decided why not, I have some time,” Jennings said.
Gregg had never been in the Crossland Technology Center before, but the pretzels were worth the confusion of navigating the building. “I’ve never been in this building before… [and] I haven’t really been to many campus events… but the pretzel was a five out of five,” Gregg said.