The first Residence Hall Week since 2009 came back last week with more than 20 events of dancing, food, games, freebies and entertainment.

Inter-residence councils at universities across the nation put on Residence Hall Week each April, as suggested by the National Association for College and University Residence Halls.

IRC President Wesley Lo said the Residence Hall Week took a hiatus after 2009, when the council only organized six events for the entire week and student interest decreased.

Wesley said he wanted to bring the week back to his standards with more events and partnerships University-wide, while also recognizing the staff of University Housing and all of the units within the Division of Academic and Student Affairs.

“There’s nothing in the springtime that I guess brings this campus together,” Lo said.  “In the fall, the University hosts both Wolfpack Welcome Week and Homecoming Week, but in the spring, the University only plans two major events — the Krispy Kreme Challenge and Service Raleigh, neither of which last an entire week.”

University Housing Director Susan Grant said she is happy to see students reviving the weeklong event that builds community among students in residence halls.

“This year’s leadership team has been very focused on connecting with traditions, and they would like to reinstate Residence Hall Week with panache so that it becomes a neat tradition that people can look forward to,” Grant said.

Grant said she encouraged students to participate in the week’s activities to support the values of living and learning together in residence halls. IRC asked every area of campus to sponsor an event, Grant said.

“From what I’ve gathered, the students are participating in them,” Grant said. “They know what their students want to go to and so they turn out.”

Lo said he would estimate that about 500 students attended PackFest Saturday evening, a concert hosted by IRC, the Union Activities Board and University Recreation that featured the bands The Ready Set and Outasight.

The concert brought an end to the week’s activities, and students, without ado, rushed to grab free food from local eateries, spike beach balls, play baseball, and of coursed dance, jump and holler in true Wolfpack fashion as the music got underway. Attendees received free, commemorative PackFest T-shirts among other prizes.

Sarah McGrath, a junior in biological sciences, and Amber Perk, senior in environmental science, said they attended PackFest because it was fun in the past, but were not even aware of its ties to Residence Hall Week.

“What is Residence Hall Week?” they asked.  

“I had no idea that was going on,” McGrath said.

IRC spent about $11,000 on the week’s events, $4,000 under its budget, according to Lo.

The money spent was not worth it, McGrath and Perk said.

“We liked last year better because there were rides and more things to do at PackFest,” McGrath said.

McGrath said she noticed events happening on campus, but did not realize they were part of Residence Hall Week and said the week needed more advertisement.

“It definitely needed more emails,” Perk said.

Residence Hall Advisor and junior in political science Kenny Hertling had the opposite opinion. 

“I think $11,000 for seven days ending with a Ready Set and Outasight concert, that’s totally worth it,” Hertling said.

RA Alzabeth Roman, a junior in accounting, said students pay for the events through boarding fees, so these types of events are good ways to give back to the students and bring residents together. Seven dollars of each student’s University Housing rent splits evenly toward hall councils and IRC, Lo said.

“It brought a different aspect because it was telling residents to appreciate the fact that they live in a residence hall and what they can do while they are here at State,” Hertling said. “It was also appreciating them for the year they had, so it was a little give and take and I like that.”

Hertling said he helped organize Central Campus’s event for the week which had inflatables, including a slip ‘n’ slide and jousting, while Roman worked on an event for East Campus, which had similar offerings, as well as a service component with Feed the Pack and a booth for students to write cards to soldiers in combat zones.