University Housing, in conjunction with the Residence Hall Association, will host a competition called My #UofiPad — “The OFFICIAL ‘I have the coolest room on campus and want to show it off’ contest,” according to University Housing.
My #UofiPad is a room decoration contest designed to highlight unusual, creative, unique and cool rooms. Those living in the top-voted room will each win an iPad Mini. If in a double, both roommates must agree on submitting a photo. No physical person may be in the digitally submitted photo. It is open to all students living in the residence halls.
RHA Programming Chair Kendra Buell said the competition is an incentive for on campus living.
RHA will sponsor a portion of the competition and decide on winners of two categories: most Vandalized and most artistic. Prizes from RHA will include a $50 gift certificate to the VandalStore. As with the iPad Mini, if submissions come from a double-room, both roommates receive the same prize.
From Nov. 5-25, students can submit a maximum of five photos or one video of their room to one of three platforms: Instagram — @UIdahoHousing, Facebook — facebook.com/uidahohousing or by email to University Housing Marketing Coordinator Cara Lehman — [email protected].
Beyond their name and contact information, there is no application or supplemental information required of students.
“Since it’s our first time (coordinating this event), we want to make it as easy as possible for students, as well as kind of test the water and see how interested our students are in doing this program,” Lehman said. “So, we wanted to make it super simple and not have an application.”
From Nov. 26-29, University Housing employees such as office staff, residence life staff and custodial maintenance staff will determine the top five rooms. Students will then vote on their favorite rooms Dec. 9-13.
Before the five finalists’ rooms are posted, University Housing will coordinate a photo shoot of the chosen rooms. After the five finalists are posted on University Housing’s Facebook and Instagram pages, students will vote on pictures by “liking” them.
At 4 p.m. Dec. 13, all “likes” will be counted and the winner will be determined. In the event of a tie, the pictures that received the same amount of votes will be posted once again for a tie-breaker. The winners will be contacted Dec. 16 via email, and later posted on University Housing’s Facebook and Instagram.
According to Lehman, approximately 40-50 submissions is University Housing’s goal.
“I have a bunch of friends over in the Tower that are really excited to be entering their pictures in tonight,” Tropf said. “I think we have really strong hopes and projections for this.”
According to Lehman, this competition is a way to show new students how creative they can be when decorating their room, and how much of a blank slate that room can be.
“There has been so many years that we know students are making these rooms really cool and so it’s our opportunity to kind of highlight them, and say thanks for really showing how you can make a dorm room your home away from home,” Lehman said.
Jake Smith can be reached at [email protected]