After donning Speedos and chain mail in a video that also featured Professor of Biology Ken Miller '70 P'02 and Sharpe Refectory cashier Gail McCarthy, eight freshmen won the first pick in this year's housing lottery.
The group of eight students, which includes six members of the men's swim team, submitted the winning video in the Residential Council's talent show Thursday night in Sayles Hall. A panel of three judges - Lecturer in Neuroscience John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience Michael Paradiso and Brendan Hargreaves '06, who was the lottery chair as an undergrad - picked the winner from both video and live-act entries. ResCouncil also gave presentations on the housing system and program housing at the event.
The winning group was composed of the first-years John Bailey '11, Conor Carlucci '11, Ryunosuke Kikuchi '11, Wallace Reece Chandler '11, Sam Speroni '11, Jon Speed '11, Mark Towill '11 and Fred Strammer '11.
This year's contest, attended by a noisy crowd of about 150 students, was a stark contrast to last year's online video competition.
"Last November, when we tried to decide what to do for the competition, no one wanted to do videos again," said Michael Morgenstern '08, chair of the lottery committee, a sub-committee of ResCouncil. "We wanted an event because the main purpose of (the competition) is to get word out about the lottery. A lot of people are afraid of the lottery. They think it's this scary monster that's going to spit them out and put them in Pembroke."
In addition, ResCouncil held a number of raffles to distribute prizes, such as first pick in the winner's class year, to help draw a crowd to Sayles.
Bailey Langner '10, herself a swimmer, won first pick in her class. She said she was "just really excited" about the unexpected win.
"As a rising junior, it's uncertain. As a sophomore, you know you're going to get (Graduate Center)," she said.
Entries in the talent show included juggling, lip-syncing to pop and classical singer Josh Groban, rock covers of pop star Rihanna's "Umbrella" and, in keeping with tradition, videos. The acts were interspersed with informational presentations from ResLife to teach students more about the housing lottery.
Many of the acts were months in the making. Assuming that the competition would be a video contest again this year, Grant Gilles '10 spent seven days during reading period last semester living in the Sciences Library and making a documentary about his exploits.
"I actually did not leave for seven days," Gilles said.
Though he didn't win, Gilles persuaded ResLife to allow videos in the competition.
"This (competition) was really a success," said Jillian Robbins '11, a member of the lottery committee.
