Star War’s day

By Robert Klimper |Staff Writer|

“Star Wars” fans at CSUSB were able to celebrate a day recognizing one of the most well known franchises about good versus evil, “May the Fourth.”

Santos Manuel Student Union (Student Union) organizations and ASI, offered opportunities their own ways for students to enjoy the day.

For those unfamiliar with the date, one of the reasons for its existence is due a pun on the popular phrase from the franchise, “may the force be with you.”

This is a common phrase used by the Jedi.

During the middle of the day, the Gamers Lounge was changed from its usual appearance into a “Star Wars” nerd haven with tables, music and free balloon lightsabers.

“We are throwing a bingo tournament, just playing ‘Star Wars’ music all day long and just celebrating that a day that is [about] ‘Star Wars,’” said student Jason Burnside.

Burnside hosted the event at the Gamers Lounge and is himself a huge “Star Wars” fan.

He also stated that he was one of the driving forces to the event’s inception, as he felt that it would be great to give people a place to enjoy the CSUSB take on May the Fourth.

The bingo game was a special “Star Wars” version, and instead of letters, the board was filled with characters, items and quotes from the movies.

“[The event] is really cool… seeing everyone having fun, laughing, it’s one cool thing that we as people get together and love,” said student Mark Mallos.

Selected pieces for bingo were called using using a deck with each card representing a piece of the bingo card.

To deal with character unfamiliarity of “Star Wars,” volunteers at the event would walk around showing the character that had been drawn.

“We wanted to keep it simple, since we knew the day was already going to be hyped up as it was and so bingo was the perfect thing to have everyone come together and then they can win prizes,” said Janet Castro.

Castro is the Services Coordinator at the Student Union, and also teaches public speaking on campus.

Aside from balloon lightsabers, music and bingo, walking around during the event were people dressed up as Darth Vader and Storm Troopers.

Later in the evening, ASI also gave lightsabers to the first few visitors at their screening of “Rouge One,”on the Pfau Library lawn.

“[Star Wars] was my childhood, like everybody else’s, it was originally reserved just reserved for nerds but since Disney bought it ‘Star Wars’ is everyone’s culture,” said student Brandon Bachman.