The topic of many conversations this past week have been, “what’s happening Thursday at lunch?” Many people knew that some sort of surprise was set to occur and were told to be in Brewer Dining Hall at 12:30 p.m., but not many knew what to expect.
“I had no idea what was going to happen until my friend told me that I had to be in here for lunch today,” said Allison Pulliam, a junior journalism and public relations major. “I made sure to keep looking around because I didn’t want to miss it.”
The event turned out to be several student-athletes participating in a ‘flash mob,’ in which they danced to Disney’s High School Musical’s “We’re All in This Together” in order to promote the athletic department’s theme of being “all in” this year and provide awareness for Bulldog Madness that night.
“I thought the flash mob was really fun,” said Pulliam. “It was cool that they included other people in the cafeteria, too.”
The idea was First Lady Susie Oliver’s who says she is happy to see her idea go over with the Union community so well. “It got so much energy and the attention of a lot of people, so maybe that will help to bring them out for Bulldog Madness and to the games.”
The athletic teams, Oliver and Katie Woodruff, the associate director of athletics and senior women’s administrator, have been working on the ‘flash mob’ for several weeks, said Reagan Shrader, a junior psychology major and member of the softball team. “The student-athlete participation was great. We had three practices for it over the past week, so it is awesome to see it finally happen.”
Woodruff said the purpose of the ‘flash mob’ was “to make people aware of Bulldog Madness and to reach out to the students where they would be and make sure they knew what was taking place on campus later that night.”
They want to continue to build school spirit, she said. “The flash mob alone brought different campus groups together: the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, the cheerleaders and student-athletes. It takes synergy to build energy and enthusiasm, and I think we are heading in the right direction.”
An early version of this article incorrectly spelled Allison Pulliam’s name. The article was updated Oct. 27 to correct the error.
