Dude Week 2019

MISHAWAKA, IN—On this past Sun­day night, Shiloh Prayer Chapel was flooded with dozens of male stu­dents. What caused this in­flux of testos­terone? Meat.  

For the past 11 years Dude Week has been a sta­ple of the men’s dorms in Bethel Col­lege. It started with Josh Hart­sell, the pre­vi­ous Res­i­dent Di­rec­tor of Oak­wood, hear­ing about an­other col­lege los­ing power for sev­eral days, forc­ing the dorm to spend time with other peo­ple in their dorm. The stu­dents of IWU en­joyed the time they spent play­ing card games and other ac­tiv­i­ties and Hart­sell thought it would be a good thing to bring to Bethel.  

Orig­i­nally, Dude Week was only an Oak­wood ac­tiv­ity and was not prac­ticed cam­pus-wide like it is now. The main push was for stu­dents in Oak­wood giv­ing up tech­nol­ogy to spend time with their dorm-mates and room­mates. It was­n’t a floor ver­sus floor con­test ei­ther, again, it was mostly fo­cused on the spe­cific sac­ri­fice of gam­ing con­soles, phones, tele­vi­sion, and other types of tech­nol­ogy.  

In 2013, Dude Week be­came a cam­pus-wide ac­tiv­ity, with Manges and the rest of the Men’s dorms join­ing in. It re­mains a ma­jor part of Oak­wood, but sev­eral all-cam­pus ac­tiv­i­ties oc­cur. 2013 was the first year with a des­ig­nated start to Dude Week, be­ing kicked off with Mid­night Meat­fest. 

Also, in 2013, Oak­wood started hav­ing or­ga­nized events and com­pe­ti­tions. These com­pe­ti­tions are floor ver­sus floor, with the win­ners be­ing in­vited to din­ner at Pres­i­dent Chenoweth’s home and re­ceiv­ing the Champ Chal­ice.  

The Bea­con reached out to cur­rent Res­i­dent Di­rec­tor of Oak­wood, Ben Bul­grien, to see what he had to say about Dude Week.  

Bea­con: Now that we know the his­tory and what goes on dur­ing Dude Week, can you give me a look be­hind the scenes?  

Bul­grien: Well, RA’s and RAR’s are a big part. They make sure every­thing runs smoothly and that every­thing hap­pens the way it should. They do a lot of last-minute ad­just­ments, be­cause ob­vi­ously not every­thing can be  planned for.  

Bea­con: Who does the ma­jor­ity of the event plan­ning? Is that some­thing that you are more in charge of or do RA’s take con­trol? 

Bul­grien: Every RA takes con­trol of a cer­tain day. They’re in charge of the specifics.  

Bea­con: Is there any­one else that helps out with ba­sic stuff? 

Bul­grien: I’d like to give a ma­jor shout-out to Con­fer­ence Ser­vices to help­ing with event setup and tear down. IT is a big part as well, they make things hap­pen for every­one. It’s re­ally a cam­pus-wide thing. Not every­one gets into the spot­light for help­ing. It’s only good if every­one  par­tic­i­pates.  

Bea­con: This is your first year as an RD right? Is there a dif­fer­ence be­tween be­ing an RA dur­ing Dude Week and be­ing an RD? 

Bul­grien: I can con­fi­dently say that I was an RA and it’s much dif­fer­ent be­ing the main guy.  

Bea­con: It was great to meet with you and get a lit­tle be­hind the scenes look into Dude Week, is there any­thing else you’d like to say? 

Bul­grien: I’m su­per grate­ful for the RA’s and plan­ning meet­ings and mak­ing it all hap­pen and RAR’s for be­ing will­ing to help.