Students explore campus, take photos for Instagram hunt
A Maroon Mania team jams to music and spells out YMCA on Oct. 4 behind the Charles V. Park Library.
On Tuesday, 18 teams competed in the Maroon Mania-Instagram Competition by snapping creative photos explore campus and snap creative photos.
The event was organized by the Homecoming Committee in an effort to get students excited for homecoming weekend.
Organizations from across campus formed teams and had an hour to earn as many points as they could.
The teams were given a list of 100 actions or locations they had to post on Instagram. Kaitlyn Bradley, a junior from Crystal Falls, organized the event and said the prize for winning is a good time and bragging rights.
The tally for the competition is as follows:
- Larzelere Hall - 55 points (Winner)
- Swerrill - 20 points
- Robinson/ Barnes Hall Council - 35 points
- Thorpe Hall - 20 points
- Trout Hall - 41 points
- Wheeler Hall Council - 20 points
- S/H/C Hall Council - 18 points
- Cobb Hall Council - 19 points
- CMU Program Board - 17 points
- F/E/W Hall Council - 15 points
- Phi Mu Alpha - 15 points
- Calkins Crew - 15 points
- Carehavi - 16 points
- Delta Omicron - 50 points
- Asian Cultural Organization - 33 points
- Kappa Kappa Psi - 42 points
- Sigma Pi - 40 points
- Beta Theta Pi - 52 points
“The main focus of this week in general is to get students out on campus having fun together,” Bradley said. “It’s to get them excited for the game and excited for CMU.”
This was Christopher Holman’s fourth year participating in the mania. The senior from Sterling Heights organized a team from Merrill and Sweeney halls — team Swerrill — and said the competition is a good way for students to get to know each other and CMU.
“There are requirements that we have to do as a part of the challenge like, ‘go to this area on campus and take a picture of this,’ so if students didn’t know something existed they do now,” Holman said.
Students were given clues pointing toward locations on campus and actions to perform. The clues included: taking a team picture at the hall that rhymes with Cheryl, pretending to freeze someone like Iceman or standing next to a Central Michigan University vehicle.
Teams received points for completing each task and received extra points for combining two or three in the same photo. Students also received extra points if they dressed in a costume that fit this year's theme of superheroes.
The photos were judged by volunteers from the Homecoming Committee. Judges followed an account from each team and the students had to tag their photos with a specific hashtag.
Homecoming Committee Co-chair Kara Agby said that the competition is fun for both the participants and the judges.
“Students have a lot of opportunities for creativity and we have fun because we all sit around, follow it live and get laughs seeing their pictures,” said the senior from Harrison Township. “The pictures this year were awesome and the turnout was great. There was a lot of enthusiasm with costumes and some people even posted videos which was very cool.”
Atheena Schnepp said that her team, Cobb Hall, spent most of their time in North Campus and took over 20 photos. She said her only regret is that they didn’t have more time to explore.
“It was a lot of fun and a great way to bond with people in my group,” said the freshman from Grand Blanc. “We took a lot of funny and embarrassing photos, but it was a really great addition to homecoming, and I’m glad we did it.”
To see the photos on Instagram search #CMUmaroonmania.
