By Catherine DeFuria
Which class is better? Can one event decide? Why not have a meeting of the minds? Why not have, a Clash of the Classes?
Each class is placed into teams and competes against one another in events such as tug of war, relay races and capture the shirt. Clash of the Classes was designed to occur throughout the entire year to form a long-standing rivalry between each of the classes and to build school spirit. This year’s theme is “The Year of the Husky,” with each letter representing the events that will take place during the year.
The ‘H’ starts off this year with Homecoming, and to follow are the ‘unity games’ that stands for the ‘U.’ The talent show or the ‘show off’ that represents ‘S,’ the ‘K’ stands for karaoke, and the ‘Y’ will represent the year end which involves the auction and softball tournament.
Clash of the Classes is fairly new to the university, and Craig Shames, the president of the class council governing board, expressed some concern of the events. Last year, each event had just the amount of people to participate, but this year, Shames hopes for a larger turnout.
“Because Northeastern University is a co-op school and competes with the city life of Boston, it’s hard for people to associate with the school and therefore poor school spirit,” Shames said. “I hope Class of the Clashes will be the starting point.”
The Clash took place last Friday in Centennial Quad, and if you did not participate, you certainly could have heard the grueling snarls made from each of the classes during tug of war or the cheers during the relay races and capture the shirt.
This year’s Clash of the Classes turned out to be a successful event. Before the events started, students huddled around each other with their hot chocolate and cookies, pumping up for the games.
Last year was the Class of 2006, and they are now ready and determined to gain another win. Dan Paredes, treasurer for the Class of 2006, had a positive experience last year.
“At Clash of the Classes you had a chance to meet a lot of nice people, and I hope the Class of 2006 wins again,” said Paredes. “On the other hand, the Class of 2007 is prepared to make a new stance at the university. Juan Ovied, class council government board for 2007 said, “We are determined to set a new standard for the future classes.”
To start off the competition, the Class of 2007 was against the Class of 2006 in tug of war. As each class struggled to pull their side of rope over the red line, the winner of the first round was the Class of 2007. They were then put up against the Class of 2005, in which the strong and determined freshman class yet won again. After defeating all of the classes, the winner of tug of war was indeed the Class of 2007.
The next game was the relay race. Five members of each class stood in specific places in which they had to complete a certain task. The first obstacle was the crab walk, and then passed off to another student to throw five newspapers into a bin. The third obstacle entailed drinking a cup of water as fast as he/she could and then running with the rest of their class to create the numbers of their class with their bodies. The first to succeed in doing all of this was the winner, and in this case was the Class of 2007.
The third and final game of the day was Capture the Shirt. Each class had their year printed on the back of a t-shirt and hidden throughout the Centennial Commons. The first class to find their class shirt would be the winner. In this case, it was not the Class of 2007, but the Class of 2004.
All in all, Clash of the Classes was a well-organized event that went smoothly. Even though the Class of 2006 did not reclaim their win from last year, they still have hope in redemption. Leigh Taginski, vice president for the Class of 2006, said, “We’ll get them next time.”
