By Sophie Gage, CIU Student Writer
Alpha Weekend, the first weekend of the 2025-2026 school year featured three days of events and a series of highly competitive games, kicking off the House Collective, an annual yearlong competition between CIU’s dormitories, also called houses.
“East always dominates,” proclaimed a resident of East Hall.
Bold words. But every house seemed to carry a similar sentiment that their house would win in the end.
After a time of mingling in The Quad with pickup games of volleyball, a little line dancing, and some refreshments, the real games began with a doozy: the egg toss. Students from the same house paired up and tossed an egg back and forth. The students who could throw the egg and catch it the farthest won. It was described as “egg-straordinary,” by one student, plastered with egg guts and shell on his skin.
For the first night, the winning house was East, with Dignitas following close behind. (Each House also has the name of a Latin virtue.)
The next night proved to be just as much fun: the cake battle! Each house was given a cake and cake decorations of their house’s colors. Whoever created the best-looking cake would win!
The houses set to work on the cakes, while at the same time, some minigames offered more opportunities to gain points. Minigames such as balancing M&Ms with a straw and getting a cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands proved to be a great way to rack up points for your house, as friends cheered you on.
The houses’ range of creativity in the cake battle did not disappoint. Aequitas created a model of their apartment complex in great detail, Sapientia made a Bible with the verse “go therefore and make disciples” written on it, and Dignitas depicted Rapunzel from Tangled with a high tower of ice cream cones beside her. As the judges conferred over who should win, students formed a conga line, singing along to iconic tunes. In the end, Fidelitas took the win by constructing a large replica of their house symbol — a lamp.
Last but not least was “Big Ball Volleyball” on Saturday night. Divided into four sections, the houses were pitted against each other in a game of volleyball — a massive oversized volleyball! The ball would be tipped into the air and descend in slow motion on the opponent who would try to keep it off the ground. After an hour, the game was so intense that a hole was punched into the ball! No one let that stop the fun, and a real volleyball was brought out. As the sun slowly set, Alpha Weekend came to a satisfying close.
Although every house wanted to win the games, the team building was the true victory. After these unforgettable games, friendships have been forged that will last much longer than any material prize.
(Photo by Noah Allard)
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