Have you always known that your faculty could beat the crap out of any other faculty on campus? You might have to put up or shut up this winter with the introduction of the first ever Faculty Olympics.

Although the idea has been around since at least last year, the Faculty Olympics have never been realized. However, SSMU has been persistent this year in making the Olympics a reality, working with organizers Aneerudha Borkotoky, U3 Finance and Marketing, and Sheera Gendzel, U3 Marketing, to launch the event.  

“We’re still in the preliminary stages, but we already have a lot of ideas formed,” said Students’ Society Vice-President Communications and Events Gill Prendergast. “Now we need to select the best ideas and realize them.” 

There are many possible events already and more to come.

“One idea is to have one activity within each faculty that is naturally inclined toward that faculty,” Prendergast said. “For example, we could have lighthearted scientific experiments for Science and similarly styled trivia for Arts. Another example would be to have one huge immersive activity for all the faculties. Then again, it’s certainly plausible to combine both examples.”

The Olympics are hoped to create camaraderie between McGill’s faculties rather than competition.

“The main goal is to increase faculty interaction,” Prendergast said. “A lot of times, students unconsciously interact chiefly with other students in the same faculty. What we’d like to do is to promote more interaction between the faculties, to stimulate more out-of-faculty relationships. Ultimately I think it’ll be a really productive event.”  

The Faculty Olympics has been tentatively scheduled over a four-day period in mid-winter, possibly January and all the faculties have received invites.

The location of the event has not yet been decided, but everyone involved is working hard to make it a success.

“I hope the event gets a warm reception,” Prendergast said. “If we could get a strong start in the initial year and make this an annual event, all the hard work put in would have been worth it.”