By Zachary Nelson
This year at the University Washington Bothell — for the first time ever — students from all three UW campuses will come together to compete in the Tri-Campus Games. Students from the UW Bothell Muslim Student Association (MSA) came up with the idea by collaborating with other MSA students from the UW campuses in Seattle and Tacoma.
The MSA is enthusiastic that students are coming together April 7 at the Bothell campus to celebrate their love of sporting.
“This is going to be a giant ‘field day’ for college students,” said Adham Baioumy, a mechanical engineering major and MSA secretary. “We saw how sometimes the campuses appear disconnected, and that isn’t that way it should be. We are all UW students, and we want to show that our campuses are united. Our mission statement is to bring people together.”
Competitors will “tug of war,” compete in a three-legged race, traverse obstacle courses and do egg-tossing challenges. The MSA officers purposefully chose games that will provide high interaction between the three campuses so that students can make friends.
“We wanted to bridge the gap between the three campuses and to show the world that we are all UW students, regardless of which campus you take the most classes on,” Baioumy said.
The event is free and open to all UW students, but students can bring a friend from another college or university. Everyone will then be mixed together into teams that will compete to be named winner. There also will be some games that will pit the campuses against each other, although these will be just be for fun. The games will have a team winner who will earn the “Tri-Campus Cup.”
Students on all three campuses are taking notice—and organizers predict event registration might fill up soon. The deadline to register is March 31.
The MSA is also providing food from different cultures and regions such as the Mediterranean and Indonesia, including shawarma (a traditional Arabic food) and vegetarian options. This will give game attendees the opportunity to sample diverse cuisines and expand their palettes.
Omar A Al-Ekaili, a biology major who is one of the games coordinators, hopes this event can bring people together.
“Many people don’t know any Muslims, and this is really unfortunate because of stereotypes that can come with ignorance. We want to show people that we are just students working to make UW Bothell a better place,” he said.
