The Wofford Activities Council has had to make changes to terrier traditions, but plan to bring fun fall events to campus.
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Photo Caption: Bella Riddle ‘21(left) and Megan Reilly ‘21(right) are the outgoing and current WAC chairs, respectively.
When you think of the fall season at Wofford, you may think of football, Sliding and Shagging, the Homecoming carnival, and pumpkin carving. Undoubtedly, the coronavirus pandemic has brought changes to every aspect of college life, and social events are no exception.
But fear not: the Wofford Activities Council (WAC) has been hard at work generating creative alternatives to Wofford’s favorite traditions. During the first week of class, WAC held a massively successful, social-distance-appropriate Trivia Night attended by 112 students. Along with trivia nights, scavenger hunts, and outdoor movies, WAC is in charge of planning and executing terrier traditions such as Winter Lighting, the Black and Gold Ball, and Spring Weekend.
Instead of the back-to-school favorite, Sliding and Shagging, WAC chair Megan Reilly ‘21 explained that she and her team had to get creative to rework such a close-contact event. Backyard Bash, planned for October 3rd, will replace Sliding and Shagging while “keeping in line with the overall idea of it,” said Reilly.
WAC execs are hopeful that a different, fall-inspired outdoor event will still give students an opportunity to socialize while following social distancing rules. Bella Riddle ‘21, outgoing WAC chair, said that “everyone on exec is working very hard so that we can still have these activities even if they have to look a little different.”
Along with replacing and reimagining terrier traditions, WAC is working to make COVID-19 life on campus a little more fun. With the excess in its budget, WAC is purchasing items like movie screens, speakers, tents and more that any organization on campus can use for free. To borrow from the WAC closet, students can fill out a Google form (given to them by any WAC member) to request an item. In addition to bulking up the WAC closet, Reilly and Riddle said that their budget is mostly matching that of last year, and anything left over will be a bonus to be used for next year’s WAC events.
Looking ahead, WAC is hoping to rework Winter Lighting into a festivities carnival and also to hold some sort of Homecoming event in the absence of football games. And, after all, necessity is the mother of invention: the COVID-19-friendly events WAC plans this year may turn into new Terrier Traditions. Reilly and Riddle said that the COVID-19-era WAC has made them feel hopeful for the future of the organization.
While WAC usually gets lots of applications from first-years, Reilly and Riddle want to encourage freshmen to join WAC this year more than ever. They believe that underclassmen on WAC have been taught how to be adaptive as a result of COVID-19 and are “excited to see where they take it in a couple of years and leave their legacy behind,” saidsays Reilly. Reilly and Riddle are hopeful that, even though it may look different from years prior, this special school year will still be filled with Wofford fun.
