Desteny Maragh – Reporter
The university hosted the first ever online homecoming Trivia Night on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. on Zoom.
Student’s competed against peers and alumni and prizes were awarded to the top three students and three alumni.
All particiants had the chance to win up to $400. At the highest number of participants, there were 68 people playing live.
Host, Eric LaCharity and Daphney Alston, from the Office of Student Involvement, guided everyone through the event.
At 7 p.m., LaCharity joined the virtual meeting and said there was a misprint on the flyer and the event was supposed to start at 8 p.m., but to alleviate the mishap, he chose to start early until the main trivia began.
The game night was full of a joking and friendly competition.
The various hosts played upbeat music and lead students and alumni to Kahoot, which is a game-based learning platform used to create, share and play learning games or trivia quizzes.
The first game consisted of 18 questions ranging from different areas of studies like mathematics, history and art.
One student who attended, psychology major Kayleigh Reed, a junior, said, “I thought I would be better at answering the questions, but I didn’t end up winning anything.”
She said one of her favorite things in general has always been homecoming season and the traditions that come along with it.
Reed said she is not into sports, so she is not disappointed over the loss of the homecoming game, but she does wish there could be more in-person events.
“Adjusting to having social events online is very hard I miss being able to be with friends and have those intimate experiences in public setting,” said Reed.
Back before school opened in fall, the Division II conference said the decision was made by the Council of Presidents of the NE10 and was voted unanimously on the suspension of university sports. The presidents cited the health and safety of its student-athletes, coaches, staff, and wider campus communities as the main reason.
Connecticut has two Universities in the NE10: The University of New Haven and Southern.
The conference did say in a statement that they are working to have the fall sports compete in the spring of 2021. However, this can only happen if it is safe to return to competition.
mpetition. Alston said the university is “one of the only schools still celebrating homecoming,” as many have decided to cancel as a result of COVID-19.
Alumni joined the Zoom at 8 p.m. to play Kahoot games with fun questions that appealed to both groups like “what is the square root of 12?,” “who is the author of the Harry Potter series?” and “what color are Mickey Mouse’s shorts?”.
Another question was “what year was SCSU founded” and 24 percent of people got it right. Eric LaCharity joked that “we’re going to need to do a Southern only trivia.”
Graduate Intern in Student Involvement & Leadership Development Alandre Alexis said, “trivia is the staple game in the student involvement office and while planning for homecoming they just had to incorporate it.”
Alexis said they had expectations of how many people would come but, “we had more people than expected.”
“If people show up, we did our job,” said Alexis. While planning the trivia game, Alexis said “We needed something that would appeal to both alumni and current students,” as it had to be accessible to a wide range of people rather than just students.
Due to COVID-19, giving physical gifts and prices are not allowed so each winner was rewarded through virtual gift cards.
Alexis said that “overall, the event was a success.”
