Blue Demon Week a year-long planning process for DAB, SGA

School spirit and campus activity were higher than usual last week as the university marked the second annual Blue Demon Week (BDW).

The tradition started last year in an attempt to rebrand homecoming week for a non-traditional school. DePaul does not have a football team and is a majority commuter university. After last year’s pilot run, this week week has been filled with even more events for the students to enjoy and celebrate being a Blue Demon.

Events held on campus not only included the traditional dance and men’s and women’s basketball games, but also fun activities such as trivia night and bumper cars in the Student Center.

While BDW, a collaboration between DePaul Activities Board and Student Government Association, has been found enjoyable to many students, how the week comes together is still a question surrounding the festivities.

According to Laurel Pierce, a sophomore and the BDW coordinator for the DePaul Activities Board (DAB), the week has been carefully planned out since the beginning of the school year.

“We have been preparing for Blue Demon Week since the beginning of the academic school year,” she said. “The activities board has been holding committee meetings since September. Our Student Org Committee, which is made up of various large campus organizations and is there to help facilitate BDW events, was created back in October. So it has been planned out carefully for some time.”

While there is a wide range of events for the school year, the members had to decide which events would be used and which would not.

“We hold weekly committee meetings, and during those we encourage all sorts of ideas to be put out there, no matter how crazy,” Pierce said. “Then we bring all of the ideas together and vote on our favorites to narrow down the list.”

There has also been a big push from campus organizations to spread awareness about the week as well. Organizations have been either helping with the events during the week, or encouraging students to get into the spirit for the week.

Kristen Pengelly, assistant director of social media and marketing at The Ray, said that she has worked with the student organization committee on how they can spread awareness about the week.  She said that it is important for Blue Demon Week to have a large visual presence for the week.

“I have sat on the planning committee to help with this week. We wanted to make the week have a visual presence. That’s why our entrance attendants at The Ray are wearing their DePaul gear during their shifts this week. This will remind other students that it is Blue Demon Week.”

The student organization committee also comes up with ideas for how they can still make Blue Demon Week connected with the sporting events of homecoming week. Nicole Garton, assistant director for club sports and special events at The Ray, said that she has been working on creating one of the weeks big event, Retro Sports Night, at The Ray. She said that the committee wanted to do an event that could still tie into athletics, and this was the result from it.

“We wanted a way to tie in athletic affinity with a Homecoming week for DePaul. This event was created with that in mind,” she said.