Class Combat, the event billed by organizer Dan Chang '03 as Dartmouth's "newest, biggest tradition," will return to the Green tomorrow after last year's inaugural competition proved a well-attended success.
The competition, which last year was won by the Class of 2002, pits students from each of the College's four classes against each other in a variety of contests ranging from pie-eating challenges to a giant four-way tug of war.
"If you do it twice, it's a tradition," said Chang, who conceived the event in response to a perceived lack of activities associated with Green Key.
"Green Key weekend is crying out for a greater purpose," he said. "I think Class Combat has filled the void."
An added draw to the competition, Chang said, is the sheer number of organizations sponsoring and running the event.Funding was provided by the Office of Residential Life, the Programming Board, the Collis Governing Board, several Class Councils and others, but a wide range of student organizations -- prominently the Green Key Society, of which Chang and co-organizer Aquilla Raiford '03 are a part -- will also help to administer the event.
"That fact in and of itself gives it greater significance," Chang said. "The whole campus literally has a part in planning it."
Chang said he was "reasonably upset" that the Student Assembly had not voted to award its "$1000 event" grant to Class Combat, as the Assembly did last year, but added that the shortfall had been made up through the contributions of other organizations.
Although one new event will debut at this year's Class Combat -- the "ring hunt," sponsored by the freshman class -- another contest has run afoul of administrators.
The "mud wrestling" competition, run by the '04 class, "is the only event open to question," Chang said, but the final word will only come after meetings with administrators to discuss liability concerns with the contest.
All participants in the event will receive a free T-shirt, while the first-place winner in each of the contests will win a specially engraved medal. A four-foot trophy will go to the winning class, along with a victory banner hung off the second floor of Collis.
