by Stuart Good
Staff Writer
On September 12, the Cornerstone Initiative funded a pep rally for the student body to encourage school spirit for the football game against Washington & Lee the following Saturday and to create a non-Greek alternative for Sewanee social life. Cornerstone is an organization formed from the ReThink Task Force, a report that studies many of the college community issues like Greek Life, hazing, alcohol, and male/female relationships. The initiative was designed to fulfill the goals of the ReThink report, and more specifically to encourage healthy relationships among men and women, as well as to bridge gaps between Greek and non-Greek organizations. Annie Blanks (C’15), the primary planner of the pep rally, said, “The idea of the Pep Rally was to try and get people pumped up for the Washington & Lee game, and to provide students with an alternative to going out to a frat house.” She continued to outline some of the challenges she faced in planning the pep rally: “One of the biggest challenges of the event was getting people excited about it. It’s hard to do anything at this school that doesn’t involve Greek Life, so I had to work extra hard to get people to come out to Cravens Hall.”
The Pep Rally, hosted in Cravens Hall, featured fantastic performances by the Sewanee Cheerleaders, Tiger Girls, and the Step Team. The popular band Entice kept the party exciting from the beginning to the end, and the football players were all introduced and celebrated. Because of its relocation from the Quad to Cravens, attendance was low, but it was nice to see adults and students from all different areas of Sewanee life coming together to celebrate. Molly Rogers (C’16), co-captain of the cheerleading squad, said, “It was really nice to see different Sewanee organizations supporting each other, because I feel like a lot of times they interact only competitively. But at the pep rally there was a great sense of camaraderie along with Tiger spirit!” (C’16), co-captain of the cheerleading squad, said, “We plan to do the event again next year, hopefully in the Quad at a more family-friendly time. We’ll potentially incorporate food and staff from McClurg to further bridge gaps between students and employees.” the event next year can help Sewanee encourage school spirit like they did this time, while creating a non-Greek, student, faculty, and community encompassing event the focus of the social scene. This year’s event has definitely laid the groundwork for those goals to be fulfilled in the future. All in all, Houston, Rogers, and Blanks all thought that the event went well and helped to boost school spirit for what turned out to be an exciting and historic win over Washington & Lee. Blanks summed it all up by saying, “Overall, it was a success, and I think it definitely drummed up school spirit and probably contributed to the great turnout we had at the first home football game!”