Attendance at UOSA’s new pre-game tailgate party tripled between the Sept. 12 season opener and Halloween’s homecoming game against Kansas State, the UOSA director for the events said.
Ally Glavas, political science junior, is the Director of Interior for UOSA, and the tailgate program fell into her lap before the season started.
“The first game we had about 200 people attend, and then the number doubled by the second game,” Glavas said. “We topped off at about 600 people for the Kansas State tailgate. We actually ran out of hot dogs 30 minutes before the game.”
The tailgates began four hours prior to kick off, and Glavas said she was pleased to see so many different types of people attend the event.
“We really wanted to build a community among students with these events,” Glavas said. “We saw a lot of international students, a lot of freshmen and greek students as well. Sometimes we’d see the same faces, but we saw new faces at every game.”
UOSA teamed up with Housing and Food Services and EA Sports to get the event organized, she said.
“We got most of everything donated, so budget didn’t really factor in,” Glavas said. “Housing and Food gave us hot dogs, and EA Sports gave us a few gaming activities for the college students and the community kids.”
Glavas said there were video games and multiple giveaways at each tailgate.
Since this was its first year, Glavas said UOSA used Facebook, posters, chalkings and a huge banner on game day to advertise the events to students.
Allyson Sand, energy management junior, worked as the international outreach chairwoman on the Family Weekend executive committee. She said was very happy to see so many international students at the UOSA tailgate.
“There was a lot of food, and everything seemed very well prepared,” Sand said. “I hope they continue the event next year.”
Rachel Milton, communication junior, attended the tailgate with Sand and said she had a lot of fun.
“I liked the hot dogs and the fact that there were so many different kinds of people,” Milton said. “I would go next year, too. It was cool.”
Since the UOSA Executive Branch turns over every year, Glavas said she cannot guarantee tailgates will continue but has every intention of helping the job be as easy as possible for someone to continue next season.
“I think the tailgates were very successful this year, and I hope the new administration next year will decide to continue it,” Glavas said. “I’ll leave everything I can to make it easier.”
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soonerboomers 2 years, 5 months ago
Not sure why people consider things Housing & Food provides as "donated." The students who are forced by the regents to live in the exorbitantly priced dorms are paying for those hot dogs. They are not donated from some special place in the sky.
eb313 2 years, 5 months ago
Go Glavas Go Go GO!!!