The war has begun.
Each year, the Residence Hall Association hosts a year-long event called “Tech Wars”. Tech Wars is a year-long competition between all the residence halls, Tech Village included. Each building will earn points throughout the year through various competitions, such as filling up the recycle bins in their respective lobbies, competitive events, and signing in at Tech sporting events.
With this competition, residents have many opportunities to get involved in campus life.
“Tech Wars is really beneficial to all of my residents, especially freshman,” said Zack Eason, a resident assistant. “It gives them a chance to get involved and take pride in living on campus.”
The first competitive event will be the Cardboard Boat Race held on September 23rd at 8 p.m. in the Fitness Center swimming pool. Each building will construct a boat and race against all other teams.
Each building will race in various heats, going up against two other buildings at a time. The building with the fastest time out of all the heats will be crowned the champion. Only the top three teams will receive the respective amount of Tech Wars points based on placing first, second, or third. All other teams will not be awarded any points.
Historically, this event has been a great success with hundreds of students getting involved in the competition.
“I would say overall last year’s Boat Race went off perfectly,” said Devin Shaffer, a resident assistant. “The attendance of both students and faculty was almost overwhelming and each hall had their own boat, some more than one.”
Shaffer also commented on the large amount of school spirit shown at this event.
“TTU pride was rampant,” said Shaffer. “Everyone had a smile on their face, and the creativity of the students was just amazing.”
Over the past four years, Tech Wars has been dominated by gender-specific residence halls. During the two school years between Fall 2009 and Spring 2011, Browning/Evins, the all-male hall, was crowned Tech Wars champions both times. On the contrary, Crawford Hall, the all-female hall, has won the past two years of Fall 2011 and Spring 2013. This year, each residence hall and Tech Village will be looking to put an end to Crawford’s winning streak.
For updates on the standings, a board on the 2nd floor of the University Center will display the current point count throughout the year for all the buildings.
Students can get involved and participate in Tech Wars by putting aluminum cans and plastic bottles in the recycling bins in residence hall lobbies. Contact a resident assistant to participate in the Cardboard Boat Race.