University Housing and the Inter-Residence Council hosted PackCon, a combination game night and Dress Up and Dance Party in the Talley ballroom to advertise the upcoming housing selection process.
Participants were encouraged to dress up as their favorite character and enjoy a night of board games and dancing with other students. The theme, PackCon, is a reference to Comic Con.
“We’re trying to do something fun each year to get students involved,” said Brittany Sweeney, the marketing assistant for Campus Life. “This is the second year we’ve done a big kick off like this, but we’re trying not to take ourselves too seriously.”
University Housing and IRC hosted two simultaneous events in the Talley Coastal and Mountains Ballrooms. Coastal held a variety of different board games and activities for students to get to know each other and potentially meet a new roommate for the next housing year.
“The community is the best part of living on campus,” said Jacob Michel, a junior studying chemical engineering and an IRC Representative for North and Watauga Halls. “I feel like I’m welcome anytime.”
Employees of Student Housing and the IRC dressed up in superhero capes and costumes to reinforce the PackCon theme.
“It’s very fun to see all these people dressed up,” said Kim Hoff, a freshman studying statistics. Hoff attended the event because she wanted to stay on campus next year, but doesn’t yet have a roommate.
Students gathered at tables and played Scrabble, Monopoly or colored large print-outs of Disney characters.
“One of my friends showed me this event,” said Jamie Berry, a sophomore studying agricultural science. “As a transfer student, NC State is a big adjustment. I’m here to half check out the housing scene, half look around for a roommate for next year.”
The Mountains Ballroom held the Dress Up and Dance Party, with student Elliott Holliday providing music.
Joseph Taylor, a freshman studying exploratory studies and intern for Sweeney in the Campus Life office, designed the posters and T-shirts for the event, which feature wolves dressed up as popular super hero and videogame characters.
“I started out just drawing regular wolves, for the Wolfpack,” Taylor said. “But then we came up with the Comic Con idea and I figured it would be good to incorporate some of the more popular superheroes, plus some Nintendo characters and, of course, we had to reference Star Wars.”
Free posters of Taylor’s work were available at the artist’s table, where he signed pictures of his work for students.
“This is a completely new experience for me, having people come up and recognize me,” Taylor said. “It’s so weird, but still cool.”
When he wasn’t signing posters of his art, Taylor dressed up as Darth Vader for the event.
Prizes are available for students who attended the kick-off event Tuesday night then also sign up for one of the five housing options. After each housing option closes, a winner will be drawn from among those options. Prizes include Amazon and iTunes gift cards, free cable/ResNet for a year and an iPad Mini 2.
“We hope people enjoy living on campus, because we all enjoy working here,” Sweeney said.
Residence Hall Week begins Jan. 24, and will run until Jan. 30. Different residence halls will host a variety of different PackCon-themed activities, with events such as Super Hero movie night, dodgeball and Wii-U Smash Bros. tournament.
Akira Romero, a sophomore studying biomedical engineering, explains the rules of the card game War to Chyna Lim, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering, at PackCon on Tuesday in the Coastal Ballroom in Talley.
