By HAYLEY HOFFMAN – STAFF WRITER
On Sat. Oct. 26, Centre’s ghouls and ghosts headed over to the Campus Center for a spooky, Halloween-themed CC After Dark program.
Upon entering the Campus Center, students were greeted by creepy Halloween decorations. Members of the SGA Programming Committee sat at tables outside of Cowan Dining Hall at the “Paint a Pumpkin” station. Many students painted pumpkins with unique designs, including the faces of Harry Potter characters and the “pi” symbol.
Students competing in the Dean’s Cup had an opportunity to swipe in and earn points for their house.
Most of the night’s events took place inside Cowan. Festive foods were served out of cauldrons by a Cowan worker dressed up as a ghoulish figure. Snacks for the evening included “Ghoul Guts Guacamole” and “Spooky Spider Salsa” which was served with red and black tortilla chips.
Inside, there were two DJs, dressed as a priest and a nun, who provided the music for “Scare-aoke.” Popular selections for singers included tunes from Grease, as well as hit songs by Billy Joel and ABBA.
Later in the evening, the Student Activities Council hosted their annual costume contest. Over 20 creative students entered the contest this year. Winning entries included the Headless Horseman, the Log Lady from Twin Peaks, and an Anna Karenina dress crafted from curtains.
First-year Laurin Hisle won the most “Most Creative” award for her costume of a female version of Enjolras from the musical Les Miserables.
“My roommate and I love Les Miserables, so we decided to dress up like our favorite characters Enjolras and Marius,” Hisle said. “We used our own clothes and wore cardigans instead of jackets to create the ‘girl version’ of them.”
A group of first-year girls won “Best Group” for their “Centre College Twerk Team” costumes, which were comprised of black athletic shorts and yellow Centre jerseys.
“A couple of the girls on my hall and I decided to dress up in a group costume,” first-year Mackenzie Cohen said. “We all bought jerseys from the bookstore and decided to create a ‘twerk team’ with the jerseys.”
To round out the activities in Cowan, several students sang “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a reminder that the film was playing upstairs in the Ewen Room later that night. A showing of the cult classic is usually put on each year by Centre Players, but this year, SAC decided to add the film to their CC After Dark line-up.
“It was very short notice,” sophomore SAC Committee Chair Sebastian Brown said, “but we decided to put it on. It was a campus tradition already and we thought it would be a shame if it wasn’t shown at all.”
Attendees were given bags of “props,” like toilet paper and rice, to throw at the screen as part of the Rocky Horror tradition. Students also dressed up as characters from the film, including Brad Majors and Magenta.
In January, the CC After Dark program will be “Casino Night.” The event will feature games such as blackjack, craps, and roulette, and may include a showing of the film 21.
“Casino Night” will be co-hosted by Assistant Professor of Mathematics Lesley Wiglesworth’s “Understanding the Games We Play” Centreterm class, which is exclusively offered to first-year students.
The course focuses on understanding the mathematics behind casino games and horse racing.
The November CC After Dark program will feature a revival of the Centre College Battle of the Bands, hosted by Centre Encore and SAC.
Four bands comprised of students will perform twenty-minute sets of music. Four faculty members will judge the competition, with the top prize being a $100-value gift card.
“The program on Nov. 15 is the last one for the semester,” Student Life Coordinator Elizabeth Frank said. “So if students haven’t been yet, they should come!” The Centre College Battle of the Bands will take place in Cowan on Nov. 15 starting at 9 p.m.