English honor society to host event to decorate Welles Hall for Halloween

On Monday, Oct. 31, the English honor society Sigma Tau Delta (STD) will hold their HalloWelles event, a night when students can visit Welles Hall to meet some students and faculty members from the English department. Portions of the hall will be decorated with Halloween-themed décor, and students are welcome to come in costume. 

STD President Hannah Lustyik said that students are invited to stop by Welles Hall after 7 p.m. on Halloween. English faculty members and students will be serving candy and refreshments, and students will have a chance to meet faculty members and learn more about the English major and course offerings for next semester. 

Lustyik said, “I want to liven up, like, some of the English department, because Welles is a really nice building. There’s something a little spooky about Welles, English is a spooky major, and we thought it’d be kind of fun to say, ‘Let’s decorate the hallway and have it lead to one of the classrooms and then we can give out some candy and refreshments at the end.’ We’re getting quotes from professors from their favorite horror media, so it’s a cool way to get to know some English professors too.” 

Lustyik said that some of the English faculty members were very excited about the prospect of participating in a spooky, Halloween-themed event.

“Some of the professors want to collaborate with us in the hallway as well… they were really excited. I know Professor Goga has a class about witches and spells—I’m not sure the exact title [of the class], but he’s getting some of his students to possibly perform their incantations for their projects. It’s kind of a combination of academics and entertainment. Even though it’s a Monday night, the professors are excited. I’m happy to have their support with it.”

According to Lustyik, many English department events have not garnered as much participation as she had hoped. While the COVID pandemic lessened the amount of programming that was possible, Lustyik hopes that now students will be more excited about interacting on campus. 

“I feel like there’s so many cool events on campus and a lot of people don't go. Especially last year, a lot of our events didn’t have as much of a turnout as we wanted them to and I blame COVID, because I feel like it made people want to be inside more and not participate on campus, which is understandable obviously.” 

According to Lustyik, it is the first time that STD has held a Halloween event, but she hopes that it may become an annual event if this year goes well. She said that she hopes students will have fun, since it is the first large event she has planned on campus as STD President. 

“This year is literally the first time it's ever happened. We came up with it maybe a month ago. If it goes well, I would really hope that it continues because I think it’d be really fun to have like a tradition going in Welles because Welles is such a nice building. And I think it could really bring students and faculty together, because everyone seems excited about it. So, I hope it lives up to everyone's expectation,” she said. 

The English honor society also holds other events throughout the year, such as the Walter Harding Lecture series, a series of lectures on poet Henry David Thoreau, who was a subject of interest and study for Walter Harding, the late Distinguished Professor Emeritus and one of the founding members of STD at SUNY Geneseo. 

Students are encouraged to stop by Welles Hall on Halloween in costume to meet some of the English department and enjoy free candy and refreshments.