The Falcon   |   Volume 83, Issue 53

Published 5/29/13   |   Log In

Fusion replaced with ‘Traditions’

Res. Life says new plan will facilitate better floor bonding

By KENDRA VANN-SJOGREN, Staff Reporter

Published: October 10, 2012

For the past 10 years, new students living in the dorms have worked together to perform floor skits for an event called FUSION–but not anymore under a new Office of Residence Life mandate.

“Going into this year, the Residence Life department felt that the goals of FUSION could still be met without the collective residential event formerly known as FUSION,” said Lynnea Common, assistant director of the Office of Residence Life.

The final decision to cancel FUSION was made after Residence Life Coordinators returned for training last August, Common said. This year floors are being encouraged to facilitate their own floor bonding activities, Common said.

For FUSION, each dorm floor would put together a skit or dance that they would perform in front of the other floors. Most floors would then do their own traditions after the event.

FUSION, which was created to facilitate floor bonding, started in 2001.

This year, floors were given a two-week span of time to take part in their own activities that supported floor bonding and unity.

“This year there was Traditions 2012, which took place instead of fusion,” said Tyah Young, a former Peer Advisor and Residence Life Intern.

FUSION planning began as early as spring quarter the year before, Young said. Traditions 2012 was a less stressful alternative, she said.

“[Traditions 2012] allowed PA’s to still carry on their floor’s traditions and bond with the floor without the added expectations and responsibilities that FUSION brought,” Young said.

“I felt like it was very poorly organized this year, said Cynthia Chiu, a sophomore living in 1st Emerson. “I didn’t feel we did as much bonding as in FUSION last year.”

But Chiu also said that FUSION could involve a lot of effort and stress.

“FUSION was a ton of work and took a lot to put together,” Chiu said. “This year was easier, less stressful.”

Common said the amount of work FUSION took on their part did not play into their decision to cancel it.

The goal of Traditions 2012 was to allow more freedom in what the floors do for their tradition and bonding, Common said.

The former ban on leaving campus for tradition was lifted and the Peer Advisors were given more leniencies in planning their floors’ activities, she said.

While Residence Life is being more lenient on some issues, Common said there has been an overall crackdown on dorm floor traditions.

The Office of Residence Life issued a list of rules and guidelines to the floors explaining what actions were prohibited.

The list included bans on use of food or paint smeared on the body, wearing clothes of the opposite gender and anything that does not line up with SPU’s Christian values.

In previous years, traditions included paint fights and campus runs, where students were smeared with paint.

However, Common said Residence Life will get feedback on this year’s traditions and the decision to discontinue FUSION may not be permanent.

“Residence Life has an annual task force called FTF (Fusion Task Force) that has collected feedback from previous years,” Common said. “We will again gather student and staff feedback and re-evaluate for future years.”

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