On Tuesday, November 13, Phi Sigma Pi Zeta Beta Chapter hosted its first big campus wide event, Are You Smarter Than an F&M Professor, hosted and emceed by F&M favorite; Dean S. Phi Sigma Pi is a co-ed national honor fraternity, meaning that every brother (yes, they’re all called brothers, even if they’re girls) needs to maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher. In order to even rush Phi Sigma Pi, a 3.0 GPA minimum is required along with at least one semester done.
The event featured competitors from all different clubs, organizations, and teams on campus, with Amy Moser ‘14 from Kappa Delta winning first place, Phil Ehrig ‘13 for German Club coming in second, and Stephen London ’13 representing Club Soccer taking home third place. Prizes were given to each of the top three winners.
Each contestant could choose a category, with categories such as government/history, English, science, and math, to answer a trivia question in, and would pair up with an F&M professor of his or her choosing for assistance with questions, if need be. Each contestant had to pick a different professor for a partner each round until he or she ran out of professors, in which case, s/he would then be able to pick a professor for a second time.
The professors who participated in the event were Dean Roger Godin of Brooks College House, Professor Bryan Stinchfield of the Business, Organizations and Society Department, Professor Curt Bentzel of the German Department, Professor Annalisa Crannel of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, and Professor Jorge Mena-Ali of the Biology Department.
The questions for the contestants went from elementary school level, to middle school level, to high school level, to college level, to Ph.D. level, to finally, trivia about F&M history. Each contestant had two strips of paper for assistance, with one saying peek and the other saying copy. If a contestant chose to use a peek, s/he could look at his/her professor partner’s answer, and decide whether or not he or she wanted to use it. However, if a contestant used the copy strip of paper, s/he would have to take the professor’s answer as is, even if s/he thought it was wrong. If a contestant answered a question wrong, s/he would then be asked to leave the stage and thus be eliminated from the competition.
All proceeds from ticket sales and participation fees went to Phi Sigma Pi’s philanthropy, Teach For America. There was also a bake sale and #F&MProblems t-shirt sale, along with a raffle, with all money raised from those events going towards Phi Sigma Pi Zeta Beta Chapter.
Not everything that night was completely serious or studious, as there were many jokes and funny moments thrown in. The representative for the Quidditch team, Jack Pinsky ‘14, went up on stage with a Quidditch broomstick between his legs, and when Dean S asked about it, quipped that he was “very excited”. One of my favorite highlights from the night was when one girl was asked, “What are the two types of albinism [being albino]?” to which she replied, “off-white and eggshell”, which drew many laughs from the audience as she left the stage. There was also the contestant-professor duo that thought that the capital of Oklahoma was Tulsa (for the record, it’s Oklahoma City), something that became a bit of a running joke throughout the event.