By Karla Fonseca
Staff Writer
The College has recently begun “Spirit Fridays” to take place every Friday of the school year. The kickoff took place on Sept. 1 and was an all-day long event. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to show college spirit by wearing blue and gold colors or school apparel every Friday.
The purpose of these events is to promote school spirit and engage the college community.
“I feel like there is a lot of school spirit at the beginning of the semester with Homecoming Week and all of that,” said senior nursing major Jess Reyes.
Junior industrial and organizational psychology major Madelyn Wolf, also commented on school spirit at the College. “I think it's a spectrum. There are people who are really into it and really enjoy it, and then for other people, it is not really a part of their life. They just come here and don’t really care much about the school”
Reyes adds, “Spirit Fridays is a really good idea in terms of trying to build a community around everybody to show that we are all one school.”
Maria Quattrocchi, the Coordinator of Student involvement at the College, is spearheading the Spirit Fridays.
“We so frequently see students wearing gear from other institutions, and we also hear from students that there isn’t much school spirit at [the College],” said Quattrocchi.
Throughout Spirit Fridays, the College’s “Spirit Team” will be around campus, presenting giveaways as well as uplifting the spirit of students, faculty and staff. Additionally, there will be a social media presence for this event, with hashtags #TCNJSpirit and #TroscoeIF.
“We decided that maybe it was time to do something about it - and what better way to start this tradition than on the best day of the school/work week? We really just want [the College] to be a place where students are proud to be, and we're hoping that this will help to start building that sense of pride,” Quattrocchi added.
Promotions are also included in this event, such as students were able to receive a 10% discount on one school spirit clothing item from the Bookstore on Sept. 8. With all of these events and promotions, the College is seeking to uplift and heighten the college spirit.
“We're hoping that this starts a fun tradition around being proud of being a TCNJ Lion. While there may not be a huge impact immediately to the entire student body, we're hoping to just bring some fun and smiles - and some awesome blue & gold giveaways - to our campus community,” Quattrocchi said.
To improve upon these events, the College is constantly looking for ways to include input from students.
“While we're super hopeful for the future of Spirit Fridays, we want to see how the first few go! We have a lot of fun ideas, but we also are going to be looking for feedback from students about what they like, and what they may want to see. More to come for sure,” said Quattrocchi.
As a tradition that has started due to student interest, the College aims to promote student involvement and spirit to uplift the campus.
