On Halloween 2012, the Student Events and Activities Center held their first costume contest from noon until 4 on the Campus Center Terrace. Students, staff and faculty were all invited to come by in their finest Halloween regalia and compete for a series of prizes–funniest, best adaptation, most original, best faculty/staff, and viewers’ choice. Prizes were gift certificates worth up to $50 on Amazon.com.

Kim Wallace, an event coordinator with SAEC, manned the event registration table and handed out candy. She took photos of every costume and wrote down the names and contact information for every entrant. “It’s a good excuse to be a little unconventional for a day,” she said. “We’ve actually had a really great turnout.”

Wallace wants to “create a sense of community,” at UMass Boston. She explained that SAEC operates in large part using student fees, and that students should participate in things like the costume contest because “they paid for it.” Her office tries to make sure that most of their events are free. “We want everybody to be able to be involved.”

While SAEC itself voted on the winners for the other 4 categories, the winner of the Viewers’ Choice category was decided by UMass Boston students themselves, who voted for their favorite costume by liking it on Facebook.

The winners of the first annual costume contest are David Manning as Walter White for Best Adaptation, Evan Cutler as the ObamaCare Bear for Most Original, Jared Clemons as College Student for Funniest, Kenny Andejeski as The Old Man and the C for Best Faculty/Staff, and Morgan Wells as Charlie Brown for Viewers’ Choice.