The night of August 23 was by no means a dull night for UI students. Some attended the soccer game against Boise State, some played a giant game of capture the flag. And some 30 students screamed on the tower lawn in unison — confusing many passersby and surely new students.
The scream was organized by Alicia Treichel, a University of Idaho third-year student. Treichel saw online that students at a university in Sweden regularly take a moment and scream in unison to let out the stresses of college life. Like many students, Treichel posted what she saw on a Facebook meme called “UIdaho Memes for Scott’s Tots” for other students to laugh at.
After seeing a positive response from students, Treichel made a Facebook event called “Screaming on the Tower Lawn” as a joke in order to get a few more laughs. But much to her surprise, many people took it seriously so Treichel decided to go along with it and actually organize an event to mimic what some students do in Sweden.
“I felt like maybe it was a good way to bring in the school year and let the new freshmen know that this is definitely an odd school,” Treichel said.
Events like these happening on campus is not unique. Countless times before students have created events on the same Facebook meme page as a joke in response to seeing things on the internet that make them laugh. Whether or not these events actually happen varies each time.
Currently students are planning similar events to this in the comment section of the “Screaming on the Tower Lawn” event page. One student even suggested an event where people could howl like wolves for a minute straight to celebrate the winter solstice.
So why do these things happen in Moscow? Treichel believes that because of Moscow’s small town vibe.
“We really don’t have much to entertain ourselves with aside from maybe getting drunk, which a lot of kids can’t do because they’re under 21,” Treichel said. “So instead, we just kind of come up with stupid events to fill the void and have a good time.”
On the other hand, students such as Jorge Sencion believe these events happen because there are creatively weird people in Moscow who love to do things on a whim.
“It was a spontaneous event put on by a spontaneous person,” Sencion said.
Regardless of why students screamed, many enjoyed it because it gave them a chance to relieve stress.
“It was fun to scream when I could before the craziness of school started,” said UI student Phillip Lowhman.
Although not as many people showed up as Treichel anticipated, she still wants to do something like it again. As she was unaware of events such as the soccer game and a giant student led capture the flag game, Treichel feels that she could have attracted more people if she gave students more notice and did a better job of spreading the word.
“Maybe around midterms or finals, I’ll probably put it in the Facebook group and be like ‘Hey I know everyone’s stressed, let’s relieve this!’” Treichel said. “Maybe then it won’t be such a new idea, maybe people will be like ‘Yeah that’s the scream.’”
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected]