By Morgan Goddard, Assistant Editor  

On August 19, 2016, the new freshman class of West Liberty University moved into the dorms on campus.

During the Friday move-in, there were cars back in the parking lots and voices in the hallways as well as some familiar tears, “goodbyes,” and “hellos.” There was also much appreciation as different organizations came to help the new residents.

WLU’s Greek Life chapters carried many boxes and happily helped students move in as well as the university’s president, Dr. Stephen Greiner. Jennifer Wright and Adam Mick from Covenant Community Church (C3) in Wheeling were also there handing out goodie bags.

“We want to help out with these goody bags so that we can meet the freshmen, and help them with their transition in any way we could,” Wright said. “We also want to get the word out about the college group, which meets from 7-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights at C3, and think it would be a good opportunity for freshmen to come and meet people that go to West Liberty. We want to make sure they knew they were welcome!”

Once the move-in was complete, Topperfest was officially in full swing. Coordinator of Campus Activities Kate Billings, Director of Housing and Student Life Marcella Snyder, and the entire staff of resident assistants helped kick of the semester in high spirits with a theme of “Topper Pride!”

Topperfest is an almost two week-long series of events at WLU that started August 19 and runs until September 2nd. Examples of the activities that have taken place already include a comedian, Build-A-Topper (in which students were given the chance to stuff, dress, and name their own plush animals), a showing of the movie “Neighbors 2,” on the quad, an ice cream social, karaoke, bingo, a hypnotist, and a rec day on the quad.

 “My favorite event was the hypnotist,” freshman Valeria Julian said. “I never believed in that stuff, and it was crazy to see those people dancing and making fools of themselves.”

The Blast From The Past tie-dye event was so popular that there was a line from the student union clear to the fine arts building. There are also many more events to come. Check out the flyers in the residence halls, the student union, and follow @wlactivities on Twitter and Instagram for updates.

“Topperfest so far has been going great,” Billings said. “Many of our yearly traditions are back, and our hypnotist last Wednesday had the biggest crowd I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”

“Juniors and sophomores that came to these events as freshmen enjoyed them, and they want to come back again,” Billings explained. “Hopefully this year we started some brand new traditions, like the Build-a-Topper event.” The whole purpose of Topperfest is to keep the students engaged, coming back, and connecting outside of the classroom.

 If you would like to help plan more campus activities and events, join the Campus Activities Board. For more information on how to join, contact Billings at [email protected].