The annual Residents on Campus Festival is here, which allows on-campus hall residents and Greek Court residents to join together in a series of competitions between the different on-campus residence halls. 

The festival is a tradition that has been organized by the Residence Hall Association for eight years.

The tradition of friendly competition between the halls was started in 2005 and residents have participated in the competitions ever since.

Throughout the years, some halls have gained reputations within the contest, like Weller Hall’s four-year winning streak.

The contests can be fun and provide the opportunity to bond with others in your hall. With classes and friends, sometimes residents do not find the time to meet people in their halls, or sometimes even on their floor.

Friendships are important during college and the festival provides another opportunity to forge those friendships. 

This festival puts halls against each other in friendly competition and helps to forge bonds between all of the halls.

The activities are varied so that everyone should be able to find something that they are interested in or good at. 

Athletic residents have the obstacle course at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on the South Quad or the boat race at 5 p.m. Monday on the Campus Pond. 

The boat race, one of the biggest events of the week, requires the halls to build a boat out of cardboard, tape and other materials and to sail them across the Campus Pond. 

The window-painting contest will give those who are creative and artistic a chance to compete. It is judged by different RHA representatives and University Housing and Dining Staff. 

A scavenger hunt allows those residents with investigative abilities to participate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday. 

Bingo is from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday in Lawson Hall. Students can participate just by playing a game.

The different events allow people with all types of skill to participate, so it is harder for people to be left out.

Each event gives the halls a certain amount of points to help determine the winner at the end of the week.

By participating in the events of ROCFest, on-campus residents will create a better bond to their campus community. 

Students who help with different parts of the competitions get the satisfaction that they were partly responsible for helping to get their hall points.

Students do not have to participate in every event or competition, but should try to support their residence hall as much as they can. 

There is no reason students cannot find a place to help, whether it is by painting a window or throwing out an idea to help make the boat float better.

Living on campus provides the opportunity to be close to hundreds of other students and ROCFest allows them to connect in another way.

Besides, sometimes the competitions are comical. Who doesn’t want to watch someone sink in the campus pond?