Over this past winter break, students became aware of a new policy which directs them to stay on campus as much as possible. If a student needs to go home for an appointment and will be gone overnight, they need to fill out an overnight form which will be reviewed by Bluffton University’s COVID-19 prevention committee.
The measure of not staying overnight anywhere was put in place after there was an increase in cases after Halloween last semester due to students leaving campus and being around crowds. As a result, there have been more efforts to keep students on campus.
Marbeck Center Board [MCB] is the student event planning group on campus who mainly work in Marbeck Center, the student union building. To help deter students from leaving and instead stay in the ‘Bluffton bubble,’ MCB has been hosting more events per week than previous years.
Kevin White is the MCB advisor and the assistant director of the university event complex. He helps work with students a part of MCB to bring their ideas for events into fruition. White has said the events occurring on campus have increased and have probably tripled the amount they would typically do on a semester-basis.
Trying to plan events people will enjoy and enough so there isn’t a dull moment might put a lot of pressure on someone, but White doesn’t agree.
“I wouldn’t call it pressure, I really do think Bluffton does a good job of doing events,” said White. “My current MCB squad is really really good. So we like to hold ourselves to a certain standard. So if there’s pressure, it’s really just coming from us. We’re trying to hold ourselves to a good standard.”
Events put on by MCB can range from weekly Bingo’s to ‘Winter Wonderdam’. ‘Winter Wonderdam’ is an event which requires more planning and in turn has more put into it for students to enjoy, such as a mechanical surfboard, customized street signs, hot chocolate and more.
“I really enjoy doing our large scale events, especially this year, because it makes things seem somewhat normal,” said White.
Taylor Shimp is a junior and in her second year as a member of MCB. She said how work is able to be divided pretty evenly among herself and the other members as they are planning around four to five events a week.
Shimp said how she appreciates the good energy present with being involved in MCB.
“I enjoy all of the people that are in it and I consider all of them my friends,” said Shimp. “Kevin is really great, he makes it fun. I like going to the events even if I don’t have to work them because I think it is enjoyable to be around a bunch of people and meeting new people.”
MCB has some big events coming up which White is pretty excited for. Here are some events coming up as mentioned by White:
- Lip Sync Battle : Saturday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Founders Gym. The acts are set up, now the participants just need students and teachers to come support them!
- Dunkin’ Run : Saturday, March 6 at 8 a.m. Bluffton University partnered up with the new Dunkin’ Donuts in Bluffton. Students will run from campus to Dunkin, eat 10 munchkin donut holes, and then run back. Participants will have 50 minutes to do so, and will get a free, limited edition t-shirt for finishing in said time. Email whitek@bluffton.edu with your name and t-shirt size to sign up!
- Scavenger hunt for a Nintendo Switch Lite : Saturday, March 6. There will be an hour-long scavenger hunt students can participate in. The first one to finish wins a new Nintendo Switch Lite! More information will follow soon with the exact time.
If students have any suggestions for future events or even a theme/prizes for bingos, they can email Kevin White at whitek@bluffton.edu or Taylor Shimp at shimpt@bluffton.edu.
