Acorn

Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Joanna Whitney Members of Drew's "Mental" team for Battle of the Bells try to come up with the Chinese astrological animals during the mental competition of Battle of the Bell last Friday in University Center 107.

This year's Battle of the Bell ended with Drew University in third place, but students and organizers are enthusiastic about the return of the tradition and the prospects for winning next year. Fairleigh Dickinson University won the title and trophy and St. Elizabeth's College came in second place.

FDU won first place in all three competitions. The talent contest took place at St. Elizabeth's on April 2. The mental challenge was held at Drew on April 4 and the physical competition was at FDU on Saturday.

The mental challenge drew the largest audience from the Drew community, and the home team had an early lead. "Drew did strongly in the beginning, but bet all its points in the end and lost," Resident Director Jimmy Ramey said.

Despite the loss, students reported enjoying the competition between the three area schools. "I thought it was a lot of fun because it was pop culture and trivia, stuff I'm good at," Mark Stratton ('10) said. Stratton participated in the mental challenge.

Danielle Lambert ('08) competed in both the mental and physical challenge. "By Saturday at the physical competition we knew there was no way we could win because we lost the other two events," she said. "So we pretty much spent the whole time cheering for St. E's to win against FDU."

The Battle was originally invented with the aim to increase school spirit and interaction between Madison schools.

Lambert believes that it succeeded in that aspect. "I think it definitely created school spirit," she said. "We certainly had school spirit that day."

"It was nice to learn about the other schools because they're just down the road and we know so little about them," Lambert added.

Ramey predicted better results for future Battles. "I loved it. More importantly, everyone involved was really excited," he said. "This year, we had two students in the planning committee, but for next year we already have seven to eight members ready."

With this year's program concluded, Ramey said that the committee had learned valuable lessons. "I think people got pumped up and they could see that this had a lot of potential," he said. "We know what to expect now and next year there will be changes in recruitment and advertising."

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