By: Abigail Nelson, Community Editor
Pilot Pete may not have stolen Hannah Brown’s heart in season 15 of the Bachelorette, but he stole ours. Now, he gets a second chance at love as the current Bachelor. Monday nights at 8pm, people all over the country tune in to catch a new episode full of drama and love, including our very own students.
A few of Upton-Hasting’s Resident Assistants came up with a program to bring their hall together. “We try to do events that a lot of people are interested in.. we heard everyone was like ‘guys I can’t wait till the Bachelor starts’ so we’re like why don’t we just host the Bachelor?” said RA Carter Haid, a junior cybersecurity major. They hung up posters advertising the program on all the floors and made sure everyone knew what they were hosting. Freshman Sarah Nickerson, a social and behavioral sciences major, said she heard the RA’s yelling about it down the halls the night before, “I whipped the door open and said are you talking about the bachelor? And they were like yeah! Come watch it with us!” Nickerson commented that she was happy to have a way to watch the episode that evening, instead of the following day on the streaming site Hulu.
From then on, every Monday night that week’s episode is projected on two screens in the common area of Upton-Hastings. They have had a good turn out as well, averaging around 20-30 people. This far exceeds the average amount of people that come to a program. Nickerson loves the ridiculousness and the drama of the show. “It’s bonding too,” she said
“Everybody roots against the same people.”
Even if you’re not a Bachelor fan, students have found this night a great place to hang out with friends. “I came right from class to get here, just to hang out with everyone,” said Courtney Czechowicz, a junior ASL interpreting major and Robie-Andrews’ academic mentor, who is friends with the RA’s organizing the event. The RA’s try to provide food and drinks for students, which is typically a good incentive to get students to come. Another incentive is the golden rose contest the RA’s are holding. Students write their name and their guess of who will be the last one standing on a large sheet in Upton-Hastings common center. If they guess correctly, they will receive a rose dipped in gold at the end of the show.
It takes teamwork to pull off an event like this. The RA’s communicate between SnapChat and Facebook Messenger to work out details. They also have a shared Google Drive folder where they sign up for different roles that week, like who is getting the food.
Each RA is required to do two events a month. They receive $120 a semester from Resident Life to help fund the events they want to hold for their dorms. One has to be a community builder, something that brings the community together, like Bachelor Monday. The other has to be a learning initiative. “A learning initiative would be if we took Bachelor Monday and were like, okay here’s why the relationships on the Bachelor are not healthy relationships and explain why,” said Haid.
Besides Bachelor Monday, Haid is planning another event called Anonymous Valentines.
Students will be able to send anyone on campus a valentine anonymously. He also did an event called Reverse Trick-or-Treat, where he brought candy to the dorm rooms. As for Bachelor Monday, it has been in Haid’s top three favorite events. He said, “I like this event because people come to you and have a genuine interest in it.”