In just over a year, Hamilton College's Trivia Night has exploded to become one of the largest weeknight attractions on campus. Every Tuesday at 8 p.m., dozens of teams, comprised of students and faculty members alike, arrive at the Little Pub to test their knowledge in the hopes of winning gift certificates to the Rio Grande Tex Mex Grill.
The idea for Trivia Night first arose about two years ago, after several members of the Hamilton faculty and staff began frequenting a similar program at the Colgate Inn in Hamilton, N.Y. The attendees, including Assistant Director of Student Activities Paul Ryan '02, agreed that something like Colgate Inn's Trivia Night would go over well with the students at Hamilton. Ryan, along with Director of Student Activities Lisa Magnarelli '96, decided to give it a shot, and in the fall semester of 2007, Trivia Night was born. The first night, Ryan says, he was aiming to attract about nine teams (about 50 students), but when the doors opened at 8 p.m., nearly 30 teams poured in, and it's been going just as strong since.
The format of Trivia Night is anything but simple. There are four rounds of four questions each, as well as a picture round, a halftime celebrity challenge, a bonus round and a final round. During rounds one and two, teams can wager either one, three, five or seven points per question, and every point value must be used in each round, meaning teams have to plan which point values to use when, based on how confident they are of their answers. Rounds three and four are the same, except the point values are two, four, six, and eight. Teams have the duration of a song in which to submit their written answers to the scorekeepers.
The picture round takes place after round one, and the bonus round is after round three. Teams pick up a sheet for the picture round and have to identify 15-20 theme-based photographs, valued at one point per correct answer. Themes in the past have ranged from photos of celebrities as children to Disney characters to cross-sections of popular candy bars. The bonus round consists of a sheet of clues in which all of the answers contain a certain word (ice, stone, etc). The halftime round requires teams to guess a celebrity after listening to a "Who am I?" style series of clues, with the highest number of points given for the quickest responses. The final round consists of two questions, where teams can wager two, four, six, eight, or ten points. A correct answer wins the amount of points wagered, but if a team answers wrong, it loses half of the wagered amount.
The prize for the winning team is a $30 gift certificate to the Rio Grande Tex Mex Grill. Second place receives $20, and third place receives $10. There is also a $10 fourth place prize that is chosen at random. Teams with the most cumulative points at the end of a month receive t-shirts, and the team with the most points overall at the end of the semester receives a trophy.
Questions cover a wide array of topics so that a team that specializes in one area does not dominate. Common categories for questions at Trivia Night are presidents, movies, this day in history, etc. Paul Ryan estimates that he spends between five and six hours per week coming up with questions, with assistance from his wife Katryina Swartwout Ryan '02 and Lisa Magnarelli.
Ryan has a variety of sources that he uses to come up with questions, including books, Web sites, and sometimes just the news. "Sometimes the questions come easily," Ryan says, "and then there are some weeks when it's a struggle. There has to be a good balance between pop culture questions and truly academic questions. I need to make sure it's not a question we've used before, and that I touch on all knowledge bases."
Ryan sees Trivia Night as a place where Hamilton students and staff can come together in a social setting. It can be a mid-week stress reliever, and it has become a popular attraction for Hamilton first-year students entertaining prospective students overnight. As Trivia Night's popularity continues to grow, Ryan remains enthusiastic. He says, "It's been great to see students from all over campus come together for this, and in the past few weeks we've seen an increase in the number of faculty and staff members taking part. I love the fact that I play a part in that."
-- By Pat Dunn '12
The idea for Trivia Night first arose about two years ago, after several members of the Hamilton faculty and staff began frequenting a similar program at the Colgate Inn in Hamilton, N.Y. The attendees, including Assistant Director of Student Activities Paul Ryan '02, agreed that something like Colgate Inn's Trivia Night would go over well with the students at Hamilton. Ryan, along with Director of Student Activities Lisa Magnarelli '96, decided to give it a shot, and in the fall semester of 2007, Trivia Night was born. The first night, Ryan says, he was aiming to attract about nine teams (about 50 students), but when the doors opened at 8 p.m., nearly 30 teams poured in, and it's been going just as strong since.
The format of Trivia Night is anything but simple. There are four rounds of four questions each, as well as a picture round, a halftime celebrity challenge, a bonus round and a final round. During rounds one and two, teams can wager either one, three, five or seven points per question, and every point value must be used in each round, meaning teams have to plan which point values to use when, based on how confident they are of their answers. Rounds three and four are the same, except the point values are two, four, six, and eight. Teams have the duration of a song in which to submit their written answers to the scorekeepers. The picture round takes place after round one, and the bonus round is after round three. Teams pick up a sheet for the picture round and have to identify 15-20 theme-based photographs, valued at one point per correct answer. Themes in the past have ranged from photos of celebrities as children to Disney characters to cross-sections of popular candy bars. The bonus round consists of a sheet of clues in which all of the answers contain a certain word (ice, stone, etc). The halftime round requires teams to guess a celebrity after listening to a "Who am I?" style series of clues, with the highest number of points given for the quickest responses. The final round consists of two questions, where teams can wager two, four, six, eight, or ten points. A correct answer wins the amount of points wagered, but if a team answers wrong, it loses half of the wagered amount.
The prize for the winning team is a $30 gift certificate to the Rio Grande Tex Mex Grill. Second place receives $20, and third place receives $10. There is also a $10 fourth place prize that is chosen at random. Teams with the most cumulative points at the end of a month receive t-shirts, and the team with the most points overall at the end of the semester receives a trophy.
Questions cover a wide array of topics so that a team that specializes in one area does not dominate. Common categories for questions at Trivia Night are presidents, movies, this day in history, etc. Paul Ryan estimates that he spends between five and six hours per week coming up with questions, with assistance from his wife Katryina Swartwout Ryan '02 and Lisa Magnarelli.
Ryan has a variety of sources that he uses to come up with questions, including books, Web sites, and sometimes just the news. "Sometimes the questions come easily," Ryan says, "and then there are some weeks when it's a struggle. There has to be a good balance between pop culture questions and truly academic questions. I need to make sure it's not a question we've used before, and that I touch on all knowledge bases."
Ryan sees Trivia Night as a place where Hamilton students and staff can come together in a social setting. It can be a mid-week stress reliever, and it has become a popular attraction for Hamilton first-year students entertaining prospective students overnight. As Trivia Night's popularity continues to grow, Ryan remains enthusiastic. He says, "It's been great to see students from all over campus come together for this, and in the past few weeks we've seen an increase in the number of faculty and staff members taking part. I love the fact that I play a part in that."
-- By Pat Dunn '12
