When the University held focus groups last year to determine which areas of campus life students thought needed improvement, a common response was the desire for a stronger community identity. At the end of this month, the feedback from these focus groups will culminate in WesWars, a weeklong series of class competitions organized by the Cardinal Council.

University Relations and the Alumni Association formed the Cardinal Council last winter to build school and class spirit. The Council, which currently consists of 12 students and two administrative advisors, hopes to make WesWars into an annual tradition.

“Council members felt that there were very few common student experiences, and that these larger all-campus events play an important role in unifying undergraduates and building a stronger affinity for Wesleyan as whole,” wrote Sandy Tello, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and one of the Council advisors, in an e-mail to The Argus.

Starting on Friday Oct. 30 and continuing until Homecoming, class years will begin competing for points in athletic and academic challenges such as scavenger hunts.

“It is an opportunity for everyone on campus to come out, have a good time, and potentially gain the bragging rights to being ‘the best’ class,” said Chair of the Cardinal Council AhDream Smith ’12.

The event is loosely modeled after class competitions popular on campus in the mid-1800s. The Cardinal Council collaborated with University Archivist and Head of Special Collections Suzy Taraba to conduct research on these inter-class games, such as “cannon scraps,” in which classes competed to capture a cannon.

Student groups will be given the opportunity to set up information tables and fundraise at Andrus Field on Field Day, the first day of WesWars. They will also have the opportunity to sponsor a WesWar event during the week of November 2. During the football game at halftime, President Michael Roth will present the class that has accumulated the most points with a class key.

“We understand that we are one big community, but the point is that everyone has their own Wesleyan,” said Cardinal Council member Jeffrey Bizinkauskas ’10. “The Wesleyan for the film student or the Eclectic member is something completely different than the Wesleyan for the science student.”

WesWars is co-sponsored by the Cardinal Council, University Relations, the Alumni association and the Dean’s Office.

“The council hopes that this activity with bring the campus closer together. . . increasing the dialogue among the greater Wesleyan student body,” Smith said.

Bizinkauskas added that WesWars is an opportunity to examine the issue of diversity on campus.

“A school-wide, all inclusive event would be a good way for students to recognize and experience Wesleyan’s differences so as to come to a deeper understanding of what it means to say that ‘Wesleyan is diverse,’” he said. “This is an effort to put our money where our mouth is.”