By Juliana Vasquez | Staff Writer
As Greek organizations and Sing Alliance prepare for opening night this weekend, students not involved in the campus tradition continue about their day-to-day lives, unaware or unfazed by the air of anticipation around Waco Hall and Stacy Riddle Forum.
On All-University Sing and Pigskin weekends, Baylor’s campus divides between students who care that Sing is happening and those whose lives remain unimpacted by the event.
According to a 2021-2022 Student Life report, “37% of undergraduate females are … involved in a sorority and 19% of undergraduate males are involved in a fraternity.”
These students, however, only make up a fraction of Baylor’s campus, a fraction that goes unnoticed when Sing season rolls around.
This week has passed like any other for Waco sophomore Ailsa Lewis. In fact, Lewis didn’t even know Sing was happening this weekend.
“I do know that it happens in the spring, and I know some people in Greek organizations that have been working on it a lot recently … but I didn’t know it was this weekend,” Lewis said.
Although Lewis notices her classmates getting excited about the Baylor tradition, she said it doesn’t really affect her.
“I think I’ve seen people with costumes and things,” Lewis said. “The energy gets up a little bit, but I don’t think that there’s really anything that affects me.”
Lewis thinks Sing is a great opportunity to see the art participating organizations create from the event and is especially interested in the technical aspect of the performance.
“I think a lot of cool art comes from it,” Lewis said. “I’ve also done some tech in the past, so I’ve been interested in being a part of the production side of it before.”
Palms River, N.J., senior Lena Martinez was a participant in All-University Sing through her involvement in Sing Alliance, which can sometimes be overshadowed by the influx of Greek organizations that participate in Sing.
“Sing Alliance is definitely an iconic group,” Martinez said. “We take pride in that identity, that we are not Greek life, but we’re still part of it.”
Because Sing Alliance doesn’t have the same budget as sororities or fraternities do to draw on, Martinez said Sing Alliance had to be creative with the funding to put on their act.
“Greek orgs, because they have other revenues that they can pull from … obviously have a larger budget, and Sing Alliance doesn’t,” Martinez said. “Because they try to make it so inclusive, the budget is very set to what people can contribute … but I don’t necessarily think that overshadowed us.”
When comparing All-University Sing to other Baylor traditions, Martinez thinks Sing sits among many of Baylor’s unique traditions.
“I think Sing is one of the unique things we have — like running the line is pretty unique — having bears on campus is pretty unique, and I think Sing is right up with that,” Martinez said. “Other colleges have tried to copy what we do, but it just doesn’t hit the same.”
