by Scott Wurtzel
RIT, along with many other colleges, have closed their campuses and moved their classes online due to COVID-19. This means that not only are in-person classes no longer taking place, but all other extracurricular activities that meet on campus have been cancelled.
This includes clubs like Humans Vs. Zombies; a 6-day event that is basically a complex campus wide game of tag, that involves the use of NERF blasters. This weeklong game happens twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. How have they dealt with the COVID-19 situation?
“As you can imagine, planning for the HVZ weeklong game starts many weeks before the game actually starts. From a financial standpoint, RIT requires purchase approval ahead of time and the process often takes a week or two – longer if the purchases are made online” said Patrick Byrnes, the club’s treasurer for the past 3 years. He elaborated further by adding “When we found out that the game might be postponed, I had just started putting together a shopping list for the game and luckily no purchases were made for the game. I was able to cancel all of the requests I made successfully. Although the club didn’t have any income this semester, we also had very few expenses so the club won’t suffer financially.”
Byrnes is one of the five members of the clubs E-Board, which consists of a president, two vice presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer. Usually at the end of the game in the spring, the Admins (E-board members) and Mods (volunteer help) vote for who will be on next school years E-Board.
“Since we could not meet in person, the elections were handled over discord. Although it was tough getting used to this new method of meeting with everyone, having a recording of responses to questions was helpful when considering the different candidates” said Byrnes. “The current eboard all made training guides for the new members explaining the ins and outs of their respective positions which should help with the transition. The former president, Matt, will also be graduating in December so he committed to helping train the new eboard for the fall game.” Four of this year’s E-board are graduating this semester, including Byrnes.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ll miss is the community as a whole. This game is crazy and it’s always great to see people having fun. I don’t think there’s any other non-academic group that brings so many people to RIT compared to HVZ and that’s something not many schools have” Byrnes explains. “It’s always been fun to work on the game from a behind the scenes standpoint and I hope that the new eboard members enjoy the experience just as much as I did for the past 3 years.”
The new E-board will take over in the fall, and hopefully by then, RIT’s campus will be open again.
