Wilkes Residence Life will host their biggest event of the year, the Battle of the Halls on Sunday and first-year students are getting excited for the event.

With posters around campus and resident assistants (RAs) talking to students in their respective halls, everyone is gearing up to get ready.

Battle of the Halls is a night time event for first-year students that will be held on at 7 p.m. in the MAC, and is planned to be packed with different events and activities.

Kendra Smith, first-year psychology major, said that different dorms  will compete against each other in games like dodgeball, kickball and basketball. Food will also be provided.

Other activities planned are minute-to-win-it games, volleyball and tug of war between the dorms participating.

Of the halls on campus, all dorms with first-year will be participating including: Evans, Sturdevant, Roth, Pearsall, Ross, Waller, Doane, Schiowitz and Michelini.

“Teams are broken down based on the amount of people per floor. Evans, since it is a bigger hall, is split up by floor,” said Danah Lassiter, graduate resident director.

Other buildings like Roth are clumped together because they have less students.

“We try to be as equal as we can. Certain residence halls have also been grouped together to make it even,” said Lassiter.

Lassiter also expressed that she expects a smaller turn out than past years due to the busy time of year. Though if that is the case, Lassiter stated that teams and games would be adjusted to fit to the number of participants.

Of the ten or so first-year students spoken to about the event, more than half expressed excitement of the event and were planning on participating.

However, a few students that had their own reasons for sitting out of the event.

“Unfortunately, I was not blessed with literally any athletic ability whatsoever. I will definitely be there to root for my dorm though,” said Donald Ballou, first-year international relations major.

Ryan Chapman, first-year chemistry major, said, “Me being so busy before spring break made the advertising more useless in that I had not paid much attention to what I had seen.”

After learning more about the event Chapman expressed that he was interested in taking part and possibly getting some of his friends involved who may have shared his previous concerns.

While the possibility of the event having a small turn out is present Lassiter also expressed that students from previous years were excited for the event when they were freshmen.

Ashton Gyenizs, senior, Communication major, said, “Battle of the Halls, to my knowledge is the same as it was my freshman year. Just all different freshmen halls competing in some fun games and for the most part it was not too serious, it was just about having fun.”

“I would recommend freshmen participate. It is a way to go have a little bit of fun and a break between classes and work that you may have to do at this point in the semester,” said Matt Howard, junior biology major.

Jacob Baranski, senior biology major, expressed the same sentiment that the event was one first-year students should participate in and also recounted an enjoyable time. Baranski described Battle of the Halls as a thrilling team building exercise, and Howard spoke about enjoyable events like kickball and an oreo-eating contest from his first year.

Students interested could sign up through their RAs over the weeks leading up to the Battle of the Halls.