The Residence Hall Association is preparing many events that will have all the residence halls competing against each other for the annual ROCFest competition.

ROCFest is a weeklong competition among all the residence halls on campus.

Each event adds points to the residence hall’s team, and the team with the most points at the end of the week is the winner.

ROCFest will be next week Monday through Friday.

This year’s ROCFest theme is Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

RHA Vice President Kadie Peterson said the theme is a form of tribute to Michael Jackson.

“It’s been five years since Michael Jackson died, and I wanted to do something that will capture people’s attention,” Peterson said. “It’s almost October so it makes sense to do everything based on his song, ‘Thriller.’”

RHA President Christina Lauff said the purpose of ROCFest is to get campus community together.

“ROCFest gives residents on campus a way to be familiar on campus, meet people in their hall, and adjust to life on campus,” she said.

A total of six different events will occur each day, starting with the boat relay race and window painting on Monday.

Peterson said new residents can expect to see their halls using teamwork.

“Your whole hall has to work together to create this boat,” Peterson said. “Some of the halls spend a week long building these boats.”

The rules of the boat race are that each team has to have at least five people, the boats must be made of cardboard and duct tape, and the members of the team must reside in the same hall.

The race takes place at the campus pond and whoever can travel across the pond three times wins.

Later that day, the halls will have a window-painting contest.

The theme for each of the halls depends on which quad the hall is located at.

“Each quarter of the quad gets a different theme,” Peterson said.

On Tuesday, a bingo night will be in Lawson Hall basement, where residents can win points for their halls and prizes.

On Wednesday, ROCFest will continue with a zombie tag game starting at Stevenson Hall lobby.

The rules for zombie tag are that zombies will be given red bandanas whereas the survivors will be given white bandanas.

Zombies have to tag the survivors and take their bandanas, and the survivors have to check in at three different locations on campus.

The zombie with the most bandanas and the survivor with the most hole punches win the most points for their hall.

Thursday’s event will be a campus wide scavenger hunt from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. “There’s a bunch of clues about the history of the halls, history of different building on campus,” Peterson said. “People have to figure out through clues what those are and they have to take a picture of themselves while there.”

Also, no one is allowed to ditch class that day or will be disqualified, she said.

The last event takes place on Friday, with the closing picnic on the South Quad.

The picnic will consist of food, entertainment and community services opportunities.

For those who participate in the week’s events, their names will be added into a bucket and they will have a chance to win prizes.

Also, a dunk tank on Friday will promote breast cancer awareness from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in which students will have a chance to dunk staff, faculty and other personnel in the South Quad.

Peterson said ROCFest is all about having a fun and friendly competition.

“This whole event is just for fun, making a community between the halls, a little friendly competition” Peterson said.

Luis Martinez can be contacted at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu