Students painted the Free Expression Tunnel and listened to hip-hop artists perform at the Cypher rap battle on Monday night to kick off this semester’s Traditions Week.
Traditions week is an annual event hosted by Student Government to encourage students to keep NC State traditions while at the university.
All week, the Student Government Traditions Department will be hosting a variety of events each day to bring together the NC State community. For many students, Traditions Week is an opportunity to complete traditions in The Brick and try new things.
“I’m a freshman and I have never painted the tunnel so I just wanted to experience it,” said Aanchal Gadia, a freshman studying fashion and textile management.
Other events set to take place this week include a tour of D.H Hill Library’s archives at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and a Traditions Power-Hour at Wolf Plaza at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
“We’re going to try to knock out a bunch of the traditions in The Brick in an hour so that way people that haven’t finished The Brick or are struggling to finish it can work on it,” said Gavin Harrison, a junior studying biological engineering and director of the Traditions Department in Student Government.
NC State will play Louisiana State University at 9:20 p.m. on Thursday, and leading up to the event, the Traditions Department has planned a day’s worth of traditions for students to take part in.
Beginning with the Feed the Pack donation in the Brickyard at lunchtime, the day will also include a Bell Tower tour at 6:30 p.m. and the screening of “30 for 30: Survive and Advance” at Talley Student Union.
The film recounts former NC State Men’s Basketball coach Jim Valvano’s leadership, centering on the time he led the Wolfpack through a series of nine overtime and one-point games to eventually win the NCAA Championship in 1983.
Colin Beamer, a sophomore studying political science and associate director of the Traditions Department, said the film screening will be his favorite event of the week.
“I’ve seen ‘30 for 30’ countless times, and every time I just love that film,” Beamer said. “If the weather holds up, it will be outside on the mesh screen. If the weather doesn’t hold out, it will be inside Talley.”
Traditions Week will end Friday with Wear Red Friday and an ice cream party in Wolf Plaza from noon to 2 p.m.
This year, the Traditions Department is encouraging more people to complete The Brick. The department is trying to get more attention and graduate student involvement with completing The Brick by making sure people know about the Traditions at NC State and having more events in the Brickyard.
“We always encourage students to complete The Brick,” Beamer said. “They receive a medal at graduation if they complete 40 traditions in The Brick, and we have almost 100 people who have completed it so far, so that’s really exciting.”
The Traditions Department already has plans for next year’s Traditions Week.
“In years past Traditions Week hasn’t been that big of a deal, but we’re trying to make it more of a deal this year,” Harrison said. “Originally we wanted to have a concert to benefit the Jimmy V Foundation, but unfortunately the planning for that didn’t work out so we had to cut that last minute.”
Harrison said he hopes the department will be able to plan a concert for next year.
“I think this is something that we’ll see really grow in the future,” Harrison said.
