A New Twist to USU's Annual Mardi Gras

On February 8, 2020, the Utah State University Student Association (USUSA) and Residence Life's West Campus (Living Learning Community & Darwin Apartments) staff collaborated for the first time to host the university’s annual Mardi Gras event.

More than 2,000 students attended the event, which included dancing, tarot card readers, casino tables, and much more.

This new collaboration brought the addition of a High Rollers Room located in the Skyroom of the Taggart Student Center. In previous years, the West Campus staff hosted an annual Casino Night event at a similar time of year to Mardi Gras. Residence Life and USUSA agreed it would be a beneficial collaboration to bring the two events together, with Residence Life leading the High Rollers portion of the event.

From student government to student clubs to the Spirit Squad and student media, USUSA offers students multiple opportunities to participate in leadership positions, interest groups and service opportunities. This past year alone, hundreds of students participated through dozens of USUSA organizations totaling thousands of volunteer hours.

“It's really fun to watch them develop, because the trajectory that they end up on is always… there's this small spark or they have an interaction that starts a small spark with them and then they develop as a citizen scholar, and that's what we're trying to develop at Utah State University. Then they impact other students in that same way,” Bitner said.

Regardless of which organization they're involved with, the feeling of belonging and purpose students get explains why their USUSA involvement leads to greater academic success.

“I think a lot of times we look at our futures when we're here at college and we look at what our jobs will be and what we'll want to do and I think sometimes we kind of focus on that too much, where we don't consider what's happening now and living in the moment,” Higashi said. “College is a one-time experience and a lot of times we just are so goal-set on getting to our careers and paths that we don't spend time to do all the fun stuff like going to events and being here and having a good time and making the most out while we're here.”

Making those networks and bonds can help you in the future as well and having a good experience in your time here helps you to be motivated to stay here. I feel like a lot of people don't realize what events actually do to serve a purpose of the college experience past the classroom. My advice would be to take time to be here with the people around you and make the investment of not only your classroom and career aspirations, but also just socially and build who you are as a person and find that here.”

“This year Mardi Gras provided a unique opportunity for Residence Life and USUSA to collaborate on their shared goal of enhancing the USU student experience,” said Teren Teeples, a current Resident Assistant in West Campus. “The addition of the High Roller room provided a new depth to Mardi Gras that many students expressed appreciation for. This process has opened the door to further collaborative efforts in order to connect the diverse reaches of the Aggie family. Separate, USUSA and Residence Life are amazing organizations, but together we have the potential to accomplish so much more!”

Residence Life and USUSA look forward to the future of Mardi Gras and the collaborations between the two organizations as this event proved a great experience for USU students.