To students walking into the Business Administration Department in Murdock Hall on the evening of Thursday, September 26th, the scene looked like a family reunion.
Plates were loaded with lasagna and wings as people settled onto couches and chairs around the common room. Professors Amy Shapiro and Tara Barboza stood by a blender, working away, as conversation filled the room, punctuated by the refrain, “Who wants a virgin piña colada?”
Despite the appearance, this event was not a family reunion. Rather, it was a “Trivia and Mocktails Night,” thrown by the Business Administration faculty.
The Business Admin department was impacted heavily by COVID-19, and the effects are something they’re still trying to recover from. What was previously a bustling common space pre-pandemic had become quiet and lonely. Professor Amy Shapiro looks back on it as a low time for the department.
“Before Covid, there was a lot of people hanging out here. The pandemic really shifted that,” she said, between handing out mocktails. “We’re trying to get some energy here.”
There was certainly plenty of energy in the room that evening. Professor Omotara Adeeko ran a rousing game of trivia for the students in attendance, aided by Agnieszka Ramirez ‘25. Although most attendees were business admin students, some brought along friends, and all got deep into competition quickly. Topics ranged from the general pop culture and sports to the very specific topics of business professors’ hobbies.
The competition was fierce (but lighthearted) almost immediately. A question asking, “Who is considered the queen of pop?” split the teams, with half answering Madonna and the others choosing Beyonce. The roar of cheers and boos when Madonna was announced as the correct answer echoed out into the rest of Murdock Hall.
Some were particularly difficult, with “What does http stand for in a URL?” stumping all the teams. (Hypertext Transfer Protocol, for the curious.)
Before the final round, players paused for homemade ice cream cake, made by Professor Shapiro. Teams returned to try their hand at professor trivia. There were basic questions early in the round, asking about areas of study and hometowns, but when they turned towards hobbies, the debating began in earnest.
Only two of the four teams correctly guessed that Professor Mohsen Danesh attended New York Comicon in Batman cosplay. Similarly, no one expected the professor who enjoyed smoking meats and fish in their spare time to be Professor Shapiro.
When scores were tallied, team “Women in Business” came out victorious, followed closely by the aptly named “Brainiacs.” Despite the points, the night was really a win for all in attendance.
“We want students to have a relationship with their professors outside of the classroom to build that bond,” said Professor Barboza, clearing an empty lasagna tray from the buffet table, as the night began to wind down. “It’s important to make our students feel like they’re at home when they’re here. . . . I read a survey that said that the number one thing kids miss when they’re at school was food. We’ve been talking about how we can get students to come back into the department and to get to know us, so they feel more comfortable talking to us when they have issues or need help.”
There was food aplenty that night, and almost all of it made with love by professors (minus a package of gluten-free Oreos). Faculty and students joked and chatted all evening, but barely uttered a word about classwork or exams. Instead, listening in, conversations were about family back home, health, sports, and pets.
More than mocktails or trivia, the theme seemed to be connection.
Those connections within business admin are, indeed, making the department feel like home, Ramirez said. “It makes for a great, and fun, learning environment. The professors are very interesting. They have personalities and lives; they don’t sleep here. The department has a lot more personality than it used to … When you have Professor Barboza, Professor Adeeko, or even Professor Shapiro, there’s a little bit of an intimidation factor.”
At this, across the room, Professor Barboza tossed her hands in the air, saying “Everyone thinks I’m mean!”, prompting laughter from students helping to clean up.
Ramirez continued: “But you go to events with them, and I’ve never had one class with Professor Barboza, but I’ve interacted with her so many times. It’s crazy that I knew [so much] about her.”
As faculty and students said goodbye, heading out of Murdock Hall, it’s clear the evening was a success. Watching them leave, Professor Barboza looked satisfied.
“That’s really the whole point of these activities,” she said, “to let students know that we’re not just professors, we’re people. And we actually care about them.”
