Tuesday night event features SoundCheck, SWYPE
At first it looked like a poorly attended birthday party.
Coy Gibson's campaign launch event, "Together Let's Shag," in the Honors Residence Hall Tuesday night was complete with a banner, music, candy, a face cake of the treasurer candidate and about a dozen supporters in attendance donning white "Coy's Your Boy 4 Student Treasurer" T-shirts.
Student Government Press Secretary CJ Lake could be seen roaming the empty dance floor and enthusiastically encouraging supporters to join her and dance.
Student Body President Joe Wright, who said he wasn't there to endorse Gibson but was merely stopping by after the university's Leadership Dialogue event in the law school, obliged her and shagged a few steps.
At nearly 20 minutes in, the campaign kickoff might have been a bust. Then, Student Finance Committee Vice Chairman Mitchell Hammond, who DJed the event, turned off the shag music and cranked up the line-dancing music. Combined with the entrance of SWYPE members, USC's newly organized break dancing club, "The Electric Slide," "Wobble Baby" and the "Cupid Shuffle" quickly amped up the excitement.
At about 8 p.m., Gibson introduced USC's male a cappella group SoundCheck to the crowd, which had by then swelled to about 30 campaign supporters and curious passersby.
The group performed renditions of Mike Posner's "Please Don't Go," One Republic's "Say All I Need" and finally, the university's alma mater.
Nathan Cooper, a third-year history student and member of SoundCheck, said the group hadn't had much time to prepare for the event, due to a weekend tournament in Durham, N.C., but that it was a good chance to practice their songs.
As students lowered their toasts to Carolina, the opening bars of "Dancin' in the Moonlight" blared from the speakers and SWYPE grabbed the center of attention.
While its members are technically all amateurs, the organization consists of both new and experienced dancers. After a choreographed group number, individuals were given the chance to show off their moves.
SWYPE president Phu Nguyen and the group's other members drew applause with their lightning-fast spins and free-standing flips.
Nguyen, a second-year pharmacy student, said afterward that Gibson had visited the semester-old organization twice while campaigning, asking members to come out for the Tuesday night event.
"I was surprised that a Student Government candidate would come out to such a small organization and show interest in us," Nguyen said. "We're a baby organization looking to grow."
Gibson said meeting with organizations like SWYPE was his favorite part of the campaigning process.
"I'm glad the organizations were here," he said. "I've been going around visiting all of them, and this is a small representation of that. It's great that they were able to come out and be supported by other students who didn't even know who they are."
He said that in his visits to SWYPE's practices, he even danced with the group a bit.
"I did my little six-step on the floor," Gibson said with a grin.
On a more serious note, Gibson acknowledged the event's somewhat small attendance.
"It's a treasurer race, not a presidential race," Gibson said. "It's a little more low-key, but people got to come out and had fun."
None of the other SG executive candidates have planned campaign events, but presidential hopeful John Cuenin said he might host a function this Saturday. Unopposed vice presidential candidate Chase Mizzell said he's planning a round-robin dinner among administrators, campus leaders and senators after the election. The candidates all said they've spent the past week visiting countless student organizations, and Gibson's opponent, Freshman Council member Yousef Ibreak, said he'd be doing no dancing this campaign season.
"No shagging on my side of the campaign," Ibreak said. "Just traditional campaigning."