Hall Olympics Take Over Campus

Once a year, students at Pitt-Greensburg prepare for the Hall Olympics. They paint their faces, don their hall’s spirit colors, and occasionally dress up in a tyrannosaurus rex costume in an attempt to earn bragging rights.

The Hall Olympics took place in the evening from Monday, Sept. 21 until Friday, Sept. 25. The event was sponsored by the Residence Hall Association.

There were questions as to whether Hall Olympics would occur this semester due to all the COVID-19 regulations on campus. However, the events were adjusted in order to keep the participants and spectators safe.

Isiah Jones, a sophomore pre-pharmacy student, participated in a variety of the events that took place and had a first hand look at some of the changes that occurred.

“I do think they took all the right precautions,” Jones said. “I don’t feel like there is too much they could’ve done, but they did the right amount to keep everyone socially distanced.”

Some changes that came with Hall Olympics were the requirement of masks during outside events, limiting the amount of members on a team, and splitting up the same event over different days in order to have less people gathering.

Classic Hall Olympics events such as trivia and volleyball were kept. However, trivia was done synchronously over Zoom as opposed to having it in the Dining Hall like years past.

One of the most popular events, dodgeball, was also kept on the schedule. Instead of having it in the gym, the event was held outside on Chambers Lawn. Additionally, participants threw water balloons instead of traditional foam balls.

This year’s Hall Olympics also featured a couple of exciting new events. The first new event was the “TikTok Challenge.” This event was the only asynchronous event of the series and involved students creating a TikTok video that met criteria for a certain category. Categories for the videos included showing off your Pitt pride, having the funniest video, and making a group video.

There was a new scavenger hunt as well. The hunt challenged students with a series of riddles that led them all around campus to find more clues.

In the end, Robertshaw Hall secured the victory after a brutal feud with the Academic Villages.

Brandon Cross, a senior chemistry major and community assistant at Robertshaw Hall, has won Hall Olympics before and was happy to bring home the title yet again.

“It was just back and forth on who was going to pull out on top,” Cross said. “So, it was pretty much up in the air the whole time.”

Despite all of the restrictions, Hall Olympics appeared to be an event that brought students together in a safe, fun manner and gave them a nice reprieve from classic online events.