ALEX LASSITER: Hello, lovely people! It’s Alex Lassiter with the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota.

Well, gang, we’re back! And things are looking pretty busy on the UMN campus! This happens every single year, the U turns into such a ghost town when summer rolls around. But the second classes start back up again, it’s a swarm of students scrambling to cut their way through the crowd and get to class on time. In all the hustle and bustle of a fresh new school year, it’s easy to forget to relax.

Fortunately, there are quite a few events on the University campus that students can partake in to unwind and meet new people. One of these weekly events is trivia, co-hosted by Calvin Hume, where students can test their knowledge on various subjects like history, pop culture and Beyoncé.

CALVIN HUME: Well, I went to every trivia my freshman year and I just, I loved it so much. I loved the people who were hosting and I was like, I thought it’d be really cool if I could take over that someday and then, one random day they just said, “We’re hiring, come apply!”

And then I was like, “Okay,” and then I applied, got the interview, and got the job. I thought it just seemed like a really good place to get a community and make a lot of friends, and I’ve done that so far, so it’s been a really good opportunity.

LASSITER: And through this position, Hume found his community. His co-host, Noah Schmidt, wanted to help make the space more welcoming to people seeking community, and get really creative with planning the themes.

NOAH SCHMIDT: I would just say that when I was a freshman, I just tried out some of the events, and I always went in thinking they seemed kind of fun. I always had a lot more fun than I thought I was going to have. And so it’s just a great way to hang out with your friends with, like, a specific something to do.

I really liked the Audience Choice Trivia we did at the end of the year last year. Just because we just like mashed a whole ton of the recommendations people did into one big trivia. And that was really fun. And also I got to make a Muppets round where people had to guess the silhouette of the Muppet. And that was a big hit. It was super, it was so much fun.

LASSITER: And the themes don’t stop there! This semester, attendees will be tested on their knowledge of reality TV, comics and RuPaul. Your expertise on niche topics will be stretched to the limit no matter where you come from, even if it’s from a galaxy far, far away.

SCHMIDT: I’m really excited for Star Wars trivia, just because that’s over Homecoming, and so I know that usually the energy around Homecoming events is a lot higher and more fun. And also, we have a lot of fun prizes and stuff picked out, and it’s going to be a really good time.

HUME: And that was really fun, because me and my old co-host Crystal, we both dressed up. I wore a Stormtrooper costume. We had cardboard cutouts. We kind of went all-out for that one, and that one was really fun. Or Glee Trivia, which was the first one last spring. Because that one we had, we brought it in like a slushie machine. Gave out slushies to all the people who came. 

I think they’re just a really fun time for any student. That’s not just freshmen. We have lots of regulars who’ve come every year of their college experience and they’ve come up and told us, like, “Yeah, we’ve been coming since freshman year and it’s been such a great tradition.” And, like, these traditions are what really has bonded a lot of friends and made people meet new people.

LASSITER: So I paid a visit to Thursday trivia to check it out for myself, and it was about as high intensity as I was expecting.

The crowd that popped out filled up the entire gameroom. And some of the questions were really cool. There was a whole section on events from just this past summer and a portion where players had to guess a whole song by listening to a small sample.

On the way out of the event hall, I caught up to a group of players and stopped them to ask about their trivia-going experience. Turns out, they’d also had a tradition of visiting the trivia hall since freshman year.

TRIVIA GROUP: As freshmen, you know, there’s like, I don’t know. Everyone’s always looking for like more things to do and we saw a trivia was happening on Thursdays and we’re like, “Hey, this might be something fun for us to do, you know?” And we went as a giant group and it kind of came out as a tradition whenever we could.

LASSITER: So you guys have been coming since, like, freshman year-ish?

GROUP: Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. With a few, like, other friends. But yeah, like, we just kind of went as a big group. Just, yeah, kind of just, I think we’d, like, meet up in the dining hall, and we’d be like, “Let’s go to trivia!” So then we would go just as a big group. It was fun.

LASSITER: Have you guys ever won?

GROUP: Nope. Never won, but we’ve gotten so close. We’ve gotten third place. Multiple times. And second. And second. Multiple times. That’s why we keep coming back.

LASSITER: Trivia takes place every Thursday in Goldy’s Gameroom in the basement of Coffman Memorial Union. It, like Bingo on Wednesdays, is a consistent event that students can attend weekly with friends, making it super easy to slot into a busy routine filled with classes and work. But what if you’re looking for something a little more spontaneous?

Jordan Martinez, a social event planner with Student Unions & Activities, organized a ton of upcoming events, like tote bag making on Sept. 20 at Coffman, and a Wes Anderson movie marathon on Sept. 27 at the St. Paul student center.

JORDAN MARTINEZ: I really find it that a lot of people enjoy the craft events that we host on campus. The resources of just having a free event and things for people to do on weekdays, or weekends instead of going out and stuff. Like we have an opportunity to change that and just give the students something else to do. 

We know that it’s always hard to, like, meet new people on campus. But we just encourage those that are interested in it to just come and stop by and we’ll be more than willing to, like, hang out with you and talk to you about stuff that’s always happening on campus.

LASSITER: Last Saturday, I took a trip back to Coffman Memorial Union, this time going behind the building for a bonfire event featuring games, tie-dye shirts and s’mores.

A swarth of students, freshman and beyond, had shown up to ring in the first Saturday of the new school year. And I won’t lie, it certainly helped that there was a food truck. I’m not kidding when I say that when it opened up, people were getting out of line for the main event in favor of the flavor. When I asked a group of girls waiting in line to get some munchables what the main reason they came to the event was, they all shared the exact same answer.

So what inspired you, yeah, to come out to this event tonight? Like, what was the main draw for you?

GIRLS: The food. The food. The food. The food, and they had like a movie going on, and they had more than like one thing happening at the same time. Yeah, definitely, there was, like, stuff, yeah. And it’s free.

LASSITER: Yeah, the variety and the freeness of it all? That’s super great. So have you guys actually been inside the space yet?

MEREDITH ANELLA: Yes, I tie-dyed a shirt. 

CAMDYN ORTH: And then the food opened up, so we came over here, but there’s s’mores that we probably will go try out.

LASSITER: So the food really is the main draw of tonight?

GIRLS: Oh, 100%.

LASSITER: I do not blame you, absolutely, it looks like good food.

The freshman girls you just heard, Grace Pierce, Camdyn Orth and Meredith Anella, said they hadn’t seen anything with this level of interactivity.

The girls had come from a Gopher football game earlier in the day, and had also visited a lot more campus events than I had back in my freshman year. They said the wide variety of activities helped them to form new connections.

ORTH: Like I’ve met so many people, like going out and doing things. Like it’s a good opportunity.

ANELLA: It’s like you don’t have to just come here and talk to people, like there’s stuff to do. You could start a conversation next to the person you’re tie-dyeing a shirt with. Like, you don’t have to walk up to someone and be like, “Hi.”

GRACE PIERCE: Everything you go to is going to be a new opportunity and a new memory. So, like, why not go and enjoy campus while you’re here?

LASSITER: There are a ton of super unique one-time events happening all throughout the year, but even the consistent ones like Bingo each Wednesday and Trivia each Thursday change their themes every week, so the questions and prizes can keep you coming back again and again.

And of course, a huge thanks to the Student Unions and Activities for putting these events together. The U is a really big campus, and in the swirling whirlwind of class and work and life, sometimes we just forget to slow down and say hello to the people around us. But it becomes just a little bit easier in an event space like these. Plus, if I’ve learned anything from hosting this episode, you can get anyone to come anywhere if you’re offering free food.

This episode was written by Alex Lassiter and produced by Kaylie Sirovy. As always, we appreciate you listening in and feel free to send a message to our email inbox at [email protected] with any questions, comments, concerns or ideas for episodes you’d like to see us produce this season. I’m Alex, and this has been In The Know. Take care, y’all.