Asbury Circle was alive with enthusiastic students yesterday afternoon as the Student Programming Council (SPC) kicked off this year's inaugural Swoop's Week, formerly known as Homecoming Week.
During the event at Asbury Circle, SPC brought in free burgers from BurgerFi and chicken wings from D.B.A. Barbecue, as well as a food truck.
Other attractions included a fire artist who tossed flaming batons and a dunk tank.
This year's theme is "Swoop's Week: Let the Good Times Roll!" named for Emory's official mascot and intended to promote school athletics and spirit.
SPC President and Goizueta Business School senior Raghvi Anand said Swoop's Week is off to a great start.
"SPC's focus is to provide top-notch programming for the entire student body, and we hope to foster school spirit through our events," she said.
College seniors Ashley London and Chris Alfonso served as this year's Swoop's Week co-chairs.
Alfonso said he and London had been planning Swoop's Week since the beginning of the summer and brought the rest of SPC on board in July.
Alfonso said that as Emory's official mascot, it was time that Swoop had a week dedicated to him.
"Even though we don't have football, we want to encourage people to go to sports games and promote athletics at Emory," Alfonso said. "Even if sports attendance increases a little, in five years the stands might be full."
College freshman Alice Halter said she thoroughly enjoyed her first Swoop's Week event.
"The atmosphere was awesome and it was great to see everyone out at Asbury enjoying Emory," she said.
College sophomore Aris Economou agreed.
"I thought the turn out seemed better than last year's kick-off event," he said. "I had a great time, the food was delicious and the weather was great – definitely a good start to one of the most fun weeks of the year."
Swoop's Week continues with "Angry Eagles" on McDonough Field tomorrow, a real-life version of the popular game "Angry Birds," and will culminate this Saturday with rock band Dispatch performing on McDonough Field at 2:30 p.m.
Students are only permitted to bring a single guest and must register the individual online before the concert. Passes can be retrieved at the Information Desk in the Dobbs University Center.
–By Nicholas Sommariva
Photo by Michael Fier
