The Experimental College hopes to facilitate interaction between students and professors tonight with its first-ever "Faculty-Student Trivia Challenge."
"The Trivia Challenge was designed as a way for faculty and students to come together on an informal basis, which we believe doesn't happen as often as it should," said senior Alison Mehlsak, an ExCollege board member.
Teams for the event will include at least one faculty member and cannot consist of more than six people.
Six rounds, each with five questions touching on Tufts history, pop culture and current events, will comprise the contest, according to ExCollege Associate Director Howard Woolf. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in Hotung Café.
The trivia night replaces this year's traditional "Opening up the Classroom" dinner, which the ExCollege holds each spring. That function allows students and faculty to discuss campus issues in a formal setting.
"We didn't get the sense that there was one prominent area on campus that was debatable or would entice students to take time out of their schedules to debate," Mehlsak said.
ExCollege staff said that "Opening up the Classroom" events may still occur in the future if a relevant, popular topic arises.
For tonight's less-structured program, one category of questions will feature those the ExCollege solicited from Tufts faculty members. More than 100 questions have been submitted.
These questions will cover a variety of disciplines, including the humanities and sciences, according to Woolf. The questions will be read aloud, and teams will wager points and try to come up with answers.
Each round will feature a "master question" for which one clue will be provided. The earlier a team can correctly guess the answer, the more points it receives.
"We thought it would be more fun, a little more informal and easier to plan," ExCollege Program Assistant Nikki Bruce said of the new event.
Students need not purchase tickets or sign up in advance, although they are encouraged to do the latter by contacting the ExCollege.
The student response, however, has been slow-moving. Only two teams had registered as of Tuesday night, Bruce said, although she remains optimistic that students will register as the event gets closer.
"A lot of students just operate on a last-minute basis," she said.
An ExCollege planning committee headed by Bruce and Woolf are organizing the event. The ExCollege board, which consists of five students and five faculty members, has also been integral in planning and organizing the event.
