By Sarah Gallaher | Staff Writer
From wings to waffles, the Penland Crossroads offers a wide variety of options as the largest dining hall on campus — but freshmen seem to favor its milk. A student-run milk-drinking competition known as “Milk Monday” has taken campus by storm, with over 150 students in attendance this week.
The trend started on Sept. 11 when a group of freshmen decided to partake in a friendly milk-drinking contest. Grand Prairie freshman and self-proclaimed “founding father” of Milk Monday, Will Mittig, said he did not expect it to catch on.
“It was me and my buddy Reed. He just challenged me to a milk-drinking contest one night. A few other buddies joined in. That was week one,” Mittig said. “Week three — that was really the week it gained popularity. We probably had around 70 or 80 people in the dining hall.”
Mittig and his friends continued to hold the competition every Monday, with new competitors coming each time and one student even setting a record of 14 glasses of milk. The group created an Instagram account that gained 300 followers in one night, and students heard about the event through social media and word of mouth.
“I think Milk Monday is the greatest holiday event and sporting event out there,” Wheaton, Ill., freshman Brennan Van Meter said.
Van Meter recalled the events of last week, when one of the competitors vomited on the floors of Penland. The incident raised safety concerns about the danger of contamination with vomit and other bodily fluids in a food service location.
According to Mittig, police showed up due to both safety and crowding concerns. After the Oct. 2 vomiting incident, Baylor Dining made efforts to end the trend.
“‘Milk Monday’ has been shut down,” Baylor Dining district manager Sean McMahon said via email. “This was an unofficial event created by a group of students that was not sanctioned by Baylor Dining or Baylor University.”
This week, Baylor Dining banned the Milk Monday founders from holding the competition inside Penland a few minutes prior to the 10:45 p.m. start time. Mittig and his friends complied and moved to Fountain Mall instead — a plan they created last week in anticipation of the competition being shut down. Despite the relocation, over 150 students showed up to the event, with an additional 300 views on the Milk Monday livestream.
“I see why they don’t want it in Penland, but Milk Monday will always live on and Milk Monday will never die,” Van Meter said.
Mittig said the “founding fathers” of Milk Monday are working on making it an official club, but they are still in the process of gaining approval from Baylor. Although the trend has caused some controversy, he said they vow to honor Baylor’s requests.
“We’ll comply with whatever they tell us, gladly, but we just gather to hang out on Monday nights and drink some milk,” Mittig said.
