For one night only, UCA students proved foam to be more than the byproduct of soap and water.
On the night of Sept. 6, it became the foundation for both a dance floor and for new friendships.
The Foam Drop Party, sponsored by the Student Activities Board, was held in the Irby brick pit and featured a live DJ, glow sticks and a large mountain of foam in the middle of it all.
The booming music controlled by a DJ combined with the flashing lights and the foam managed to draw in over 50 students.
Kayla Sanders, a senior chemistry major, said she went to the event for the foam, but also because she wanted to spend her last year on campus getting more involved than she had been in years past.
Karrington Hopkins, sophomore health promotions major, said she only joined the fun “to get out, to get away from the dorm.”
Kyle Urban, a junior linguistics major, decided to join because of the “bumping bass,” and stayed to walk through the foam with other students.
Natalie Smith, a freshman elementary education major, said, “My mom stalked the website and she texted me.”
Kennedy Child, a freshman elementary education major, said it was a “spur of the moment” decision.
Although students were drawn to the Irby brick pit for different reasons, most of them stayed for the same: connection.
Gabby Wright, a freshman environmental science major, and Sanders met new people and made new friends.
Urban, who played a hand in bringing the event traction, learned what foam tastes like.
“Spicy,” Urban said.
Even students who decided to sit out while others played in the foam, like senior medical laboratory science major Kendall Murph, found themselves entertained by the kindling of friendly flames.
Besides building bonds, it was an “escape from school,” Sanders said. The foam party was a break away from the schoolwork and the textbooks, and an opportunity to lean into a defining characteristic of college life — getting out and meeting new people.
Tyler Lister, a sophomore double major in economics and finance and vice president of SAB, said the foam drop party “has been going on for years… we just try to bring fun to campus and unique things to campus – DJ, glow sticks, foam. Someone offered to bring it to the campus, and we could not say no.”
Elijah Thompson, a senior double major in political science and psychology and president of SAB, said, “Every year on behalf of the university, we go to a conference that advertises a bunch of different student activities and, given the culture here at UCA, it just stuck out to us.”
Both Lister and Thompson said they wanted to give students the chance to do more than frolic in foam; they wanted to provide students with a memory, a unique experience, and a greater sense of community and intimacy with peers.
