By Jiselle Lopez
There comes a time in every student’s life where they get to join together with their classmates and win a giant pink spoon. For residence halls Smith, Shriner, Meyran, Coblentz and Memorial this competition is called Policies for Dollars.
Policies is an annual tradition where residence halls can compete in four different categories to learn about Hood’s policies and earn money for their hall’s future activities. The competition features an obstacle course, cheers, skits, and jeopardy.
All the residence halls gathered in the quad to begin the festivities.
“My favorite thing was learning about traditions, [my] favorite tradition is not splitting the poles,” said freshman from Meyran, Lauren Shubert.
There is one rule, when the pink spoon is raised in the air, no one is allowed to speak or make noise.
Each hall was decked out in their colors and spirit with the anticipation of competition in the air. Coblentz wore yellow, Memorial sported red, Meyran cheered in blue, Smith was an army in black and Shriner shimmered in green.
“I played some upbeat club music and that got me pretty pumped and ready for Policies. I also painted my face, which was fun. “freshman fromMemorial,LydiaEmory said.
The first event was the relay obstacle course, where selected students from each building had to carry an egg on a spoon with their mouths, run as a two-person wheelbarrow, army crawl, jump through hoops on the ground, do a three-legged run then sprint to the finish.
Throughout the race, each team was cheering and chanting in the darkness. After a team has finished the relay their hall proceeds to the pergola where the real chanting begins.
Each hall chants to impress the judges with their volume and spirit.
Then the games moved to Hodson to show off each halls talents in the skits. Different halls had different themes that they played up on stage.
“We’re all pumped and involved [to learn] about traditions,” said Shubert, “[and] to see what the other dorms came up with.”
Coblentz creatively incorporated policies in theirSpongeBob Squarepants skit. Smith army rapped the policies “like a boss.”
Shriner saved Hood’s policy-breaking habits with their own superhero.
Memorial made a tough decision with their final episode of the bachelorette.
Lastly, Meyran eliminated the rule-breakers in their own hood hunger games. Between each skit was a competition ranging from freshman to senior students winning points for their halls through tests involving cheers, marshmallows, hula-hoops and hall spirit.
Jeopardy followed the skits to test just how much the freshman class actually knows about Hood’s policies and traditions.
With whiteboards in hand and partners at their sides, each team strived to get as many questions correct as they could. The residence halls supported them in celebratory cheering when they answered correctly and being supportive when they were incorrect.
The moment of truth came with the results. Memorial won the pink spoon with their collected 65 points. This left Meyran in fifth place, Shriner in fourth, Coblentz in third then Smith in second.
Memorial ran to the stage and celebrated collectively with a cheer, their cheer of success.
The crowd was riled up and the energy never ceased throughout the whole competition. Throughout the night a sense of support and community flowed from student to student, new and experienced all piled together to represent their new homes.
“Policies helped me get to know some more people in my dorm which was pretty cool,” said Emory.
Policies for Dollars remains the annual tradition that brings the campus together.
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