Picture this: Thousands of college students in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY, dancing to Thriller. Everyone was excited, and the screams were deafening. Why you ask? All in the name of leadership. You have to admit they have spirit.

Eastern sent seven delegates from the Residence Hall Association and the National Residence Hall Honorary to represent Eastern at the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) conference. Among these people is Eastern’s director of Housing and Dinning, Mark Hudson, who attended his 25th straight NACURH this year. You may call them housing nerds, but I became one of them.

This being my first conference, I felt like a fish out of water. My first thought was, “These people are crazy. They are cheering like cheerleaders, running around dressed like oompah loompahs, and everyone is spelling out things that aren’t real words such as GLACURH.”

But then I learned why. They are all in the spirit of bringing more to those who live on campus. They want to have a better housing community, better food, and just want to make it better all the way down to how to better organize their meeting so they can get the most done for their campuses.

These are people who insist on correcting everyone who mistakenly refers to the residence halls as dorms because there is a community involved in living in a residence hall that does not exist in dorms. These people devote a lot to ensuring that the community feel gets better and better.

Their cheering is merely a form of pride, which may be lacking at Eastern. The United States, along with Canada and Australia, are divided into eight regions and are represented by hundreds of members from hundreds of colleges and universities. These students compete in roll call, which is like a giant dance-off. Hundreds of people are on the field, making band formations, singing, and just having a good time. I continuously waited for someone to say, “You got served,” but it never happened.

Throughout the week, students and advisors from across the nation put on programs to share their knowledge on how to make the residence halls better. Featured were programs on communication, diversity, parliamentary procedure, and fun.

Eastern students put on “The Game of Life,” which is a diversity program that has been put on across campus. Diversity is a key in Residence Halls. I am proud to say the program made the list of top 44 programs put on.

This program showed students how common stereotypes are put into play in everyday life without awareness when getting an education or a job and when buying a house, a car or getting married. These stereotypes are represented in sex, race, class, and sexual orientation. When a student playing the roll of a Hispanic tried to buy a car, he was told to be careful because the tailgate was broken and his friends might fall out.

Many students from different schools learned the difference and thought it was one of the best programs they had seen.

What I learned from the housing nerds is that dedication and spirit will make a difference.