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Bears from Manhattan or Long Island—Who’s cooler?

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By: Beste Tatlican

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Spoiler alert: both campuses were colder in basketball than the cool weather we have going for us now.

 

Friendship, a break from assignments, a celebration of school pride — these were the reasons many students attended the Grizzly Games on November 6, 2024.

 

As I walked into the gym to watch one of the many events that were taking place, I was amazed by the energy of the student body and the organization that went into planning such a successful event. This was just basketball – people shouting everywhere, jumping for joy, and running around with determination. Team players all around.

 

Apart from the fun aspects of sportsmanship, it was an opportunity for the Manhattan Campus students to get to know the Long Island Campus and its students.

Multiple Manhattan folks told me it was a nice experience to walk around on our beautiful campus with the fall foliage around, despite the extra transportation they had to take to get here. I saw freshmen and upperclassmen alike celebrating NYIT’s community: an inclusive, happy attitude toward sports and companionship. A little bit of ambition and focus, and a lot of teamwork were necessary to get the basketball in the net within the gym, or the pickleball across the nets outside. (Our advisor, Prof. Horton, played a round of the latter, which you can find a video on our Instagram page.)

 

In addition to those sessions, there was also yoga and meditation planned, which caught my attention. Sometimes, we all need a second to breathe and forget about the everyday stress. As much as schoolwork is the priority for many of us here, downtime is equally as important – my team and I reflected, as we were conversing before the video journalism interviews.

 

I was happy to run into Josey, the Managing Editor of The Manhattan Globe, and it was so nice meeting her in person. She confirmed my observations too: “My favorite event was the basketball tournament… it was very fun… and competitive.”

 

The president of SGA, Alex, spoke about the planning process, “this is a project that LI Student Life, as well as SGA has been working on for a long time… pickleball, volleyball, spikeball, soccer… getting students engaged through Instagram, having flyers, talking about it during senate…ultimately led up to what we have today, which is great.”

The Vice President, Katie, added, “I was one of the event coordinators for this event… we helped prepare and collaborate with the New York City campus… a lot of attendees today.” She explained, “after the basketball game ends, we are splitting off…so we have multiple sessions to cater to students’ interests.”

 

Remarks from a student from the NYC campus, Brianna, and the Treasurer of SGA, Pranaav, can also be found on our full video, on Instagram @theslateow.

 

Also on our Instagram: Sameer and I interviewed the bear located in SAC…he wasn’t as talkative as the students, but it was alright — he brought good energy and style to the Grizzly Games.