Students crowded onto McDonough Field for Emory’s first ever “Thank Dooley It’s Friday” (TDIF) event presented by College Council (CC) on Friday evening. Held on the last Friday of every month, this month’s festivities were Halloween-themed.

In honor of Halloween, the festivities at the event included a “haunted” bounce house, free food, T-shirts and candy. Lord Dooley, Emory’s unofficial mascot, also made an appearance, partaking in activities like pumpkin carving and taking pictures with students.

The initiative, started by CC member and College senior Kala Hurst, was created to encourage increased school spirit among the student body, student organizations, and CC. Hurst came up with the idea in April, and CC helped plan logistics when they reconvened for the fall semester.

According to Hurst, CC received many concerns from students last year about wanting more regular events on campus that were available for pure entertainment, as well as opportunities to see more performances by student groups. Others also complained about not being able to enjoy Wonderful Wednesday due to conflicts with class times.

“The goal is to increase school spirit and the sense of community in Emory through this monthly celebration,” said Sarah Choi, a member of CC and the TDIF committee. “I definitely think the event was successful. It was a first-time event and we had a couple of hundred people come out, including Lord Dooley.”

The committee started shopping for food, decorations and prizes weeks before the event, among other preparations. The treasurer of CC, Ye Ji Kim, was in charge of designing the T-shirts for the initiative.

According to College sophomore Adam Chan, another member of CC, the event cost around $4000 to $5000, which included the costs for vendors, activities and supplies.

“In retrospect, we had a stupendous turnout,” Chan said. “Since it was the first ever TDIF, CC was only planning on around 200 to 250 [attendees].”

CC also provided pumpkins and supplies for students to carve.

“I went to carve some pumpkins and it was a lot of fun,” Bart Qian, a junior in the College, said. “I’m hopeful about future TDIF events at this rate.”

Due to what they felt was the first TDIF event’s success, CC aims to host more TDIFs in the future. Legislators hope to expand upon future TDIF’s by inviting other student organizations, Greek Life and other student government organizations like SGA and SPC to co-sponsor and actively participate in the event.

However, despite advertising that included an online Facebook event page with more than 490 people on the “attending” list, some students claimed that they were not even aware that TDIF would be occurring. “I knew what it was, but I didn’t even know it already happened,” said College junior Sam Lee. “They should advertise it more the next time around.”

– Minah So 

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