IC News

After an eventful first week on campus, students had some additional opportunities to kick back with their classmates during another week of Fall Welcome activities.

One of the highlights of the week featured the sound of silence. On August 26, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life hosted a silent disco in Muller Chapel. Students received wireless headsets that with a touch of a button, could toggle between channels playing different types of music.

Ally Aretz ’25 found the novelty and community aspects of the event to be very appealing.

“It seems really nice, just being able to listen to all kinds of music with other people,” she said.

Liam Linder ’24 found the event to be a great opportunity for shyer students on campus to be able to interact with one another

“I definitely see that you can see that someone else is maybe listening to the same thing as you, and then you have an icebreaker so that you can go talk to them,” he said.

Makiyah Adams ’23, who is a fellow in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, believes that not only do events bring students together, it also helps them recognize that they will never feel ostracized on campus.

“Surprisingly silent discos offer individual experience, but they’re also very much a collective experience,” Adams said. “We’re also hoping that students feel comfortable and familiar with the chapel space as an environment for people of multiple faiths or religious practices, or no faith, or no religious practices. That this is a place that you can come to reflect, or to have fun and listen to cool music.”

The next evening, students traded their headphones for a telescope and joined Matthew Price, associate professor of physics and astronomy, and the IC Astronomy Club for a chance to take a look at the skies during a star party.

A love of space led Riley Seraydarian ‘25 to this event, where he saw Jupiter through the telescope. More importantly, he was also able to see how many others were drawn to the profundity of space.

“I feel like being able to gather in a space with a bunch of people who are into the same thing really helps with being able to introduce myself to people, because we already have a common interest,” he said.

Price hopes that the event — as well as future ones that will be held by the club — will inspire students to be eager to learn new things and connect with others through the exchange of knowledge.

“The beauty of astronomy is that at the first pass, anyone can learn it,” he said. “I just showed a group of students a ‘Summer Triangle’ in the sky, and so maybe they’ll walk away and look at that all the time when they see it. They’ll think about knowing more, showing people how to find planets, and talk about what they can see with or without a telescope.”

On August 29, students were out on the Campus Center quad for a day of lawn games, including can jam, spike ball, ladder ball, and giant Jenga.