By: Ameena Khan
Halloween music and excitement echoed through the Student Center Gold Room as Brooklyn College (BC) Undergraduate Student Government (USG) held a student-faculty mixer encouraging students and faculty alike to paint pumpkins together on Oct. 16.
“We’re gonna have a little pumpkin painting contest,” Michael Kravets, USG events director, addressed to the audience.
Attendees were provided with painting supplies and could either paint a palm-sized or large pumpkin. Attendees were also encouraged to indulge in food served at the mixer, such as chicken tenders, wraps, veggie platters, pizza, and refreshments such as water and soda.
“Back in the Spring 2024 semester, it was decided by our USG events director at the time, Dylan Karlowski, to create a faculty student mixer,” according to Robert Echevarria, USG president and senior at BC.
“We do this every semester. We schedule the dates in May, and we set it up every year to have faculty show up and mingle with students.”
Echevarria told The Vanguard how faculty student mixers held by the USG have evolved over time, from game shows, building with Lego bricks or making slime, and even making bracelets.
“The theme that [USG] decided this [semester] is pumpkins,” continued Echevarria.
“We know because of the Henderson rules, we can’t use sharp objects to do pumpkin carving. So we said, what’s the best option next? [USG Senator Michael Kravitz] said, you know what? We gotta have painting. And so that’s how this event became a reality.”
While some attendees had found out about the mixer in advance through social media, some attendees had happened to pass by the mixer and joined in on the fun.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even supposed to be here,” recalled Onyi Duru, an early education major and sophomore, who came across the event after hearing echoing Halloween music and seeing attendees dressed in elaborate Halloween costumes head to the mixer.
Some attendees painted careful, yet detailed designs on smaller pumpkins such as small ghosts, the orange M&M, and characters from the horror game, “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
“I’m painting a kitty cat, and I’m trying to add depth,” Duru added, as she mixed colors and applied paint on a small pumpkin. “Although I’m not an art major, your girl did her art, right? I’m trying to figure out color theory for how to get [a saturated] dark brown..”
Other attendees challenged themselves with much larger pumpkins, some even collaborating, with designs such as a seal’s face, the face of “All Might” from anime series “My Hero Academia,” and the BC mascot, Buster the Bulldog.
“I painted a zombie and the stem of the pumpkin was a worm coming out of his head and the worm was really cute,” one anonymous attendee told The Vanguard. “He had a smiley face. It was fun. I came a little late, but I still got to hang out with the friends that I have and ate some food that was good. It was an enjoyable event.”
Three BC students, including one USG member, and two faculty members served as judges at the conclusion of the pumpkin painting contest.
After careful selection, the selected pumpkin winners were a painted seal’s face, a scene from the Halloween episode of “Charlie Brown,” a Manhattan skyscraper horizon, and a pumpkin with a kawaii face, which the artist had named “Bob.”
When asked whether people would recommend student-faculty mixers to the BC community, Echevarria agreed and encouraged other students and faculty at BC to come out and get to know each other.
“It’s the best way to be able to get your feet wet in student life, get to talk to your professors outside of the classroom,” Echevarria told The Vanguard. “You get to realize how your professors are just like you, and they’re trying to figure it out too.”
For more information on USG events, check out @bcstudentgov on Instagram.