With the spring semester slowly trudging to its end, many students are swamped with projects, exams and preparing for finals with varying degrees of dread.
Luckily, for those in need of something fun to break up the monotony of eat, sleep, study and repeat, Friday, April 19 will mark the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s 50th annual Lagniappe Day.
Lagniappe Week is an annual event full of fun, fresh air and greatly anticipated crawfish. But with a year full of droughts, dreadful freezes and a dubious crawfish season as a result, how will this time-honored tradition be impacted? Thankfully, it seems students don’t have much to worry about.
Lagniappe Week is often an anticipated light at the end of the dark tunnel that is the spring semester. With that sentiment in mind, the folks at the University Program Center (UPC) have not held back, and have organized some amazing activities for both students and staff to participate in.
On Tuesday the 16th, the first day of Lagniappe Week, students will be able to participate in “Kickback N’ Paint,” where they will be able to harness their inner artist.
That night students will be able to learn traditional Cajun two-step and other Louisianan dances and on the following day, UPC will be organizing a Game Show Extravaganza.
Naturally, the best was saved for last. Friday’s Lagniappe Day will of course feature local, Louisianan crawfish with no changes to its price or portions compared to previous years.
Lagniappe Day will also feature a myriad of activities including live music, canoeing, a pepper eating contest, an obstacle course and a dunk tank.
Students will even be able to submit nominations of staff members for the dunk tank and have the chance to drop them into the tank.
All of these events and activities will be free and open to all students while, just like in previous years, students will exchange tickets for crawfish.
Tickets cost students $8.50 but any student with a meal plan is currently able to purchase the tickets for free either at the UPC office or at the cafeteria beginning April 15th. But get them before the cut-off day of April 18th!
Students are also able to purchase their tickets online at upc.louisiana.edu/lagniappe where you can find all information pertaining to Lagniappe events.
But with all these events mostly being located around the Student Union, the heart of campus, you can bet that there are going to be some long lines, especially for crawfish.
If you pay attention to UPC’s instagram (@upcatul), there will be posts containing clues to the locations of plastic crawfishes hidden around campus. Whoever finds the most crawfishes will win rewards such as passes that will allow you to skip some lines!
The incredible thing about Lagniappe Day is that it is organized by UPC, which besides its faculty advisor Amber Felix, the director of student engagement and leadership, is completely student-run.
Jaylen Brown, UL Lafayette student and chair of the traditions board of UPC said, “I think it’s very different to see the other side of [Lagniappe], you see how much work goes into it, how many little things that you have to think about that students don’t necessarily think about because they just get to enjoy it.”
Brown also shared what makes working with the UPC worth it.
“I think it’s definitely very rewarding, as far as the day of, me and the entire board get to see our hard work come to life.”
The UPC is a great reminder that the university is not some great monolith deciding which events happen and how, but is in fact a network of students, staff, boards, and departments—some more connected to others— that come together to make UL Lafayette not only a place that can deliver a good education, but an enjoyable experience for all those walking down its linoleum halls.