HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The University of Guam celebrated its 56th Charter Day on Thursday with over 1,500 people showing up for the festivities.
“Hundreds of students, from kindergarten to fifth grade, they were at the lecture hall competing in the CHamoru language competition competing across three different areas coming from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as well Guam,” UOG President Anita Borja Enriquez said during a meeting Friday.
Meanwhile, activity buzzed in the open yard of the university where food stalls and organization booths were swarmed with people.
“Today, we’re showcasing a lot of things that remind us of home in Chuuk,” Nepeheniong “Nepe” Andrew May, a sophomore in the business administration program and an adviser and past president of the Chuuk Student Organization, said in a UOG press release.
According to the university’s release, the organization replicated a hut that shows how traditional chiefs in Chuuk welcome guests in a community hut.
In the release, May said, “The University of Guam is filled with students who welcome people from different cultures and different places and that’s why I feel very welcome here. … There’s not a time when I felt like I’m not a part of the community.”
The release said in the hut-building competition, the Yap Student Organization won first place, Chuuk Student Organization placed second, Pohnpei Student Organization took third place and the Society of American Military Engineers Student Chapter placed fourth.
While an array of activities began early in the day on the courtyard of the college campus, the night before marked the return of Blue Night after a 20-year ban from campus.
“It was a Blue Night rated R back then and (had) a lot of really, really risqué activities and if you do not recall, you were too young for that. As the governor said, she looked forward to the wet T-shirt contest. They had the orgasm contest, and they had alcohol. I heard they had drugs going around, but I didn’t know anything about that,” Enriquez told board members.
Traditionally planned by the Student Government Association leaders and celebrated the night before Charter Day, the banned event has been held at hotels and bars over the years.
“Most recently, before the pandemic, it would be held at Gun Beach, Beach Bar where there would be lots of drinking, dancing, alcohol and big ocean so that’s always made me nervous,” Enriquez said.
The return of Blue Night to the university campus came with a different focus.
“This was a rated PG, family-friendly Blue Night, and it was intended to bring the community in, bring your family members. Students who remember Blue Night from yesteryears are grandparents or parents. We said bring them back,” Enriquez said.
Alumni who attended received a free alumni T-shirt or balutan bag.
Attendees gather for the University of Guam’s 2024 Homecoming Blue Night at the UOG campus in Mangilao on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
