How should we spend $400 as a floor?

November 3, 2009 1:11 PM

Fun, interesting activities, or other ways to blow $400, for a floor of freshmen in a university dorm?

I'm a freshman at a large university, in a big tower full of freshmen. My floor is co-ed, half guys, half gals. We get along all right, but my RA tried to get us together for a floor dinner one week and it fell flat: lack of interest. (I think this was more because it wasn't pushed at all, not really because we all dread being together.)

He sent out an email the other day asking for suggestions for things we WOULD want to do together as a floor. We have about $400 a quarter, apparently, and we can spend it on Whatever for the floor, as long as it's approved by the building-boss.

I was going through some roughness at the beginning of the quarter, and I don't think I started myself off very well socially: just wasn't my normal outgoing, interesting self because of sitting around and being sad. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to put out a creative suggestion, have fun doing it, and make friends. Something along the lines of "awesome floor decorations", "themed cookout", etc. We're a floor of college freshmen, remember, so I expect that "silly awesome"/over-the-top ideas will be received well; the RA's attitude seems to be "hey, we have four hundred bucks here, let's do something cool", so that's helpful.

Ideas? Help me make friends!

posted by aaronbeekay to grab bag (28 comments total)

Okay, this sounds pretty dorky, but could you buy a floor Wii and a bunch of Wiimotes? I'm sure some of your floormates already have compatible games.

You can do things such as:
-Wii sports tournaments
-Have someone play a scary game and everyone else can watch and scream
-Super Mario Kart
posted by oinopaponton at 1:22 PM on November 3, 2009

Oh, yeah, or maybe a Rock Band tournament, or something?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:22 PM on November 3, 2009

Forgive my ignorance, as I do not drink, but how much beer could you get for $400?
(Also forgive me if, like the university I attended, yours is one where that idea would not be a good one.)
posted by The World Famous at 1:26 PM on November 3, 2009

could you buy a floor Wii and a bunch of Wiimotes

If it's anything like my dorm floor was in college*, plenty of people already have video games so getting together to play them would be a good idea but actually buying the system instead of borrowing someone's would probably be a waste of $400.

The most popular thing one of the RAs in my dorm did with the money they gave him was taking everyone out to see Blue Man Group. So some sort of fun event that you could pay for a big group of people to go to might work.

I may be an outlier on that front. Not only did I have an Xbox, a PS2, and a Dreamcast in my dorm room, I also had a monstrous 4-player MAME arcade machine called the Dormitron 5000 that took up most of one side of the room. But other people had video game systems too.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:33 PM on November 3, 2009

I like the Wii games idea...or video games in general, if your dorm doesn't have these to check out already.
posted by radioamy at 1:35 PM on November 3, 2009

How many people are we talking about? 30? 130?

Every RA I've ever had has struggled to get people to pay attention to these sorts of things. I've only ever seen one residence hall "program" (as they call them) that had really high participation: a chemistry professor came in to my freshman dorm and made liquid nitrogen ice cream, which was pretty damn neat.

During my transfer orientation, they took all the new students to see a movie for free; I had a horrendous cold and didn't go, but my impression was that it was a great success.
posted by Commander Rachek at 1:35 PM on November 3, 2009

This is for after the getting-to-know-you phase, but picking some businesses to lend to on Kiva would be pretty cool, and I bet you could lend some money to people in countries where floormates' parents or relatives come from. Clearly, this is for when people have already decided you're awesome and you can lead the way on doing something nifty and (hopefully) enlightening.
posted by lauranesson at 1:36 PM on November 3, 2009

The World Famous: They are freshmen, so are likely underage for beer.

How about a faux-tini party? Make your own pizza party? Cookie decorating?
Alright, I confess, I'm pretty food oriented. But so are college kids.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:37 PM on November 3, 2009

The World Famous: They are freshmen, so are likely underage for beer.

Ah yes. Good point.

Food is a good draw, though. Lots of great food. If the dinner failed, perhaps more/better publicity and a different menu/layout.
posted by The World Famous at 1:42 PM on November 3, 2009

subscribe to a csa... depending on the area, 400 bucks should be enough to get a basket of fresh, local veggies delivered to you a few times a month for an entire school year. Your bowels and waistlines will thank you as a junior
posted by CharlesV42 at 1:45 PM on November 3, 2009

Paintball.
posted by craven_morhead at 1:45 PM on November 3, 2009

I lived on a special housing floor (we weren't a sorority/fraternity and were kinda grandfathered in once ResLife decided to make all housing equal in the lottery and all that) and some of our events (which were for a floor of about 23 members, but we had other people in the society that would bring the total upwards of 50) were:

Masquerade Ball (mostly because we all wanted to get all fancily dressed up for once)
Video Game Night (set up all the various video game systems around, including my Atari)
Porn Movie Night (rent a projector from AV or whoever and set up a sheet in a lounge and watch movies)
Kickball (depends on your outdoor areas, we used a power transformer and 2 trees as the bases)
posted by sperose at 1:46 PM on November 3, 2009

Expanding on the idea of a Rock Band tournament -- make it one of those all-night things if you can, use the money to pay for pizza, snacks, etc and maybe some little prizes, like gift cards to a local coffee shop, pizza place, etc. Forming the teams semi-randomly would help with the introductions, and food and prizes are sure to draw a crowd.
posted by alynnk at 1:53 PM on November 3, 2009

Paintball.

We did this my freshman year. It was indeed a success. Seconded.
posted by Fleebnork at 1:55 PM on November 3, 2009

Hawaiian theme dinner event with the following:
-free hot dogs (~$20)
-free chips (~$20)
-a decent DJ (~$200-300 for a few hours)
-ridiculous decorations (~$50 - $200)

Fill the place with garlands and posters (much like music event posters. Think Lords of Dogtown. Approx. $20 for 100 color copies.)

Tape a big roll of newspaper to the wall with a bunch of duct-tape-string-bound markers (a real "wall" for people to post, ~$10 at a craft store.) Don't censor said wall.

Black lights add huge production value. Get the elec. eng's to hook up a few ballasts (~$40 per fixture.) Cover fluorescent room lights with black card paper duct-taped over the diffuser screens (~$2/fluorescent light.)

Extra toilet paper, napkins, utensils, condiments, (~$20 any dept. store)

Rent a small lighting rig from a music store (red and yellow are flattering in darkness, blue and green add energy.) ~$50 per night.

Maybe you could perform "bartending" duties for the night, going around and providing people with faux-tini's on a platter. There are a billion drink recipes for non-alco party drinks. (~$100 for all the mixes/pop/glasses/Umbrella stir sticks) Believe me, if the drink looks good, and tastes good, I'll give it a try in front of the lay-dees.

Invite people to bring a song on an Ipod for everyone to hear. Make sure the "DJ" has the appropriate soundsystem/connections. (~$15 at wal-mart for the 3.5mm to RCA adapter)

Try an "art party" where people are invited to create art to hang in the dorms. Total cost ~$200 for paint/brushes/markers/canvases/paper/mixing dishes/food and party favors.
posted by Khazk at 2:02 PM on November 3, 2009

If you are a college student in Columbus, I'm going to guess that you may be an OSU student, so as a an alum of an also-ginormous university in an urban area, my experience may have been similar to yours.

Free food. Good food, not shitty dorm food. Maybe this isn't universal, because my college's cafeterias were ranked among the worst in the country as far as tastiness, but when I was a freshman, basically anything with *good* food, especially *good* pizza (non-cafeteria) was a huge draw. Everyone could go out for pizza and pitchers of soda or whatever.

I don't think a CSA is a good idea unless this is a dorm with an ample and popular self-use kitchen. Most dorm-dwellers never cook beyond using a microwave.

If the failed dinner meetup was a free food thing (as opposed to a let's all go to X restaurant and everyone buys themselves dinner thing), then food may not work. If college kids who live in dorms don't like free food, my universe has just been turned upside down, but I will proceed anyway:

-College sports game
-Movie outing (hard part is getting agreement on what to see, could break into two groups for that one)
-Bowling
-Ice skating
-Concert
posted by ishotjr at 2:13 PM on November 3, 2009

My roommates and I hated our RA with a passion. She hosted several events our year in the dorms and she only got us to attend one: t-shirt decorating. I still have the t-shirt I made.


Continuing with the t-shirt idea, why not get t-shirts printed for everybody on your floor? You can all contribute suggestions for funny/slightly dirty slogans and then vote on them.
posted by mmmbacon at 2:26 PM on November 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Nth'ing paintball. Meet ppl, then shoot them. Lots of fun, lots of stories, great for groups.

Randomize the teams to promote meeting new ppl.
posted by jpeacock at 2:28 PM on November 3, 2009

Ahem... Declare war with another floor: Squirt Guns, water baloons and a hallway webcam to spot intruders in the stairwells...

Note: this may only go over really well at engineering schools...
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:36 PM on November 3, 2009

A sort of safe, school-sanctioned version of Assassin or Paranoia with weapons provided might be fun.

There was always a really successful Food And Free Toilet Paper event midway through the semester that was a hit with the dorms where they had to provide their own TP. If you're one of those.
posted by NoraReed at 3:02 PM on November 3, 2009

Roller Derby!
posted by Lucinda at 3:09 PM on November 3, 2009

could you buy a floor Wii and a bunch of Wiimotes?

This is a good idea, but:
- videogame systems are already around (and have been pretty good excuses to hang out already, Left 4 Dead is great to lounge around and play/watch)
- everybody likes the 360 and the PS3 much better. I think there are at least two PS3s and five 360s on the floor, but not a single Wii, and nobody mentions it. I was suprised.

maybe a Rock Band tournament, or something?

The RA is an excellent Rock Band drummer, and there are a couple of Rock Band sets on the floor, so this is a decent plan. This has happened informally, but it could work much better with prizes.

How many people are we talking about? 30? 130?

Probably about 30-40.

The World Famous: They are freshmen, so are likely underage for beer.

Correct; it's not like everyone doesn't have massive amounts of alcohol in their rooms, but we have to stay above-board with this.

subscribe to a csa

I wish. The kitchen facilities are abysmal, and eight floors away. Nobody eats more than Cheetos or pizza in the dorms.

Hawaiian theme dinner event with the following (...)

This could work-- basically, have a dinner night, but theme it and get people to help decorate, theme, plan, etc.- I'll run it by the RA along with some more of these ideas. I think the main issue with the dinner, as The World Famous suggested, was lack of publicity and spice. This could fix that.

In general, people here do hang out, go to movies, hang out and play videogames, etc., with hallmates.

Thanks for all the ideas! Keep 'em coming! They certainly don't need to be events or planned activities: they could also be things that would be useful or cool to buy for a floor of 30 freshmen.
posted by aaronbeekay at 3:48 PM on November 3, 2009

If you've got a floor common room, buy a few hammocks.

I was an RA last year on an all-girls freshman floor. My most successful event was a nerf-gun battle. With $400, you could be everyone on your floor a pretty sweet nerf gun!

You could go all out decorating your floor for winter - a christmas tree, a light-up menorah, Christmas lights, paper snowflakes, etc.

As far as general, fun things to do on a freshman floor (again, contingent on a common space) is to make a giant fort with sheets and chairs and get the whole floor (or a portion of it) together for a slumber party! I did this with my friends freshman year - we watched Disney movies and made microwave S'mores! If it was RA sanctioned, you could probably get the S'mores material paid for!
posted by ChuraChura at 4:04 PM on November 3, 2009

When I was president of my dorm (the apathetic dorm, which is how I became president: no one wanted the job), we did several things, from showing WCW in a campus lecture hall with a big screen (slightly illegal in that, since we couldn't order them, we had someone tape them, then showed the tape), but that was before wrestling turned to suck.

Skeeball worked. Go to an arcade, like Chuck-E-Cheese or something, get pizza for everyone, and everyone gets tokens to play whatever they want. You could even have a skeeball tournament, with a prize (iPod Shuffle?) for the highest score.

Mini-golf (getting colder now, but maybe in the spring?), possibly with the tournament included?

25 cent taco night? Where we were, Taco Bell did 50 cent tacos on Sundays, so we put up a sign-up sheet in the hall. The Sunday night before finals, we did a huge taco run, and the dorm covered half the cost. We called ahead to Taco Bell to let them know, and asked them how long it would take. It was a huge success, since people could stay in and study, and the food was cheap. We did that every term.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:11 PM on November 3, 2009

Students will mob anything with good free food. It's absurd. My RA did a lot of Indian takeout events, which were popular. Burritos work well too. Sushi--we had a make your own sushi activity. I think less formal events with food, where students won't feel uncomfortable about leaving in the middle if they're bored or rushed, and where they can mingle, are better than sit-down dinners.

Rock band is a really good idea.
posted by phoenixy at 7:50 PM on November 3, 2009

If you do a food night, I would highly suggest free Cane's. Wings are also popular. If there are vegetarians on your floor, you could get some pizza or other appropriate food in addition. Is your dorm already doing something for Mirror Lake Jumpers? If not, that'd be a great night to offer free food and hot chocolate.

Instead of floor dinner, why not a weekly floor Sunday brunch? If it's a regular thing during a time when most people are free, more people would come.

Campus-wide capture the flag or scavenger hunt with prizes.

Floor assassin is easy to pull off - we did a dorm-wide one with post-it notes, where you were assigned a target by e-mail. You then had to write their name on a post-it and stick it to their back without them calling you out on it. Then you got their target, and so on. It lasted over several weeks, but a smaller game could be shorter. Everyone got really paranoid and into it. Money could go to prizes.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:02 PM on November 3, 2009

Wow! I was an RA for a couple of years and we never had access to any kind of cash like this for fun times.

The food angle is probably your best bet for participation. Getting everyone to go out for a dinner is crazy, schedule-wise (and restaurant-wise), but pizza (good pizza! it's important) or burrito night, as others have suggested, would be great, especially during midterms/finals.

I really like the Nerf gun idea. Someone could do some research and see about getting 30-40 quality Nerf guns and extra ammo at discount. It would be a nice stress-reliever.

Movie nights with a projector are a solid idea, but you're not going to be able to get public viewing rights for under $400. Better to have the RA borrow some AV equipment from someone (somebody has connections, it's guaranteed) and do it under-the-radar. The budget could go to sodas and snacks. In connection with this, maybe a consensus could be reached on an on-dvd (or current) television series and you could have weekly viewings of an episode or two + food.

The Rock Band tournament is another good idea. Again, the RA could use the budget to supply food and/or a prize for the winners.

Another good food-based activity is ice cream sundae parties. A run to Costco or a similar warehouse store should set you up good, and the chocolate syrup, etc will last forever.

Tshirts are an okay idea, but I remember having so many random free tshirts as a freshman. Maybe something more interesting like a tote bag (great for extra books!) or pens or something. Those corporate giveaway catalogs are inspiring when it comes to that stuff.
posted by sleeping bear at 8:12 PM on November 3, 2009

I knew an RA in college who borrowed puppies from a shelter for a Saturday morning and just invited the hall to come play with them to de-stress.
posted by moreandmoreso at 10:15 PM on November 3, 2009