The Hunger Games is a book series that has recently become an interest among many students at UT Dallas. With the first film being released this March, many students were very excited to watch the heavily anticipated movie. Realizing the popularity of the series, Pam Mcelrath and 4 other peer advisors at Residence Hall South worked diligently with UT Dallas staff and Lionsgate to buy tickets to allow students to prescreen the movie at 8:00PM on March 22nd. This was not an easy feat as UT Dallas had to sign legal waivers and the Residence Hall South and North coordinators had to hand out tickets to excited residents over the course of two days. This event was completely free to students and Peer Advisors were allowed to let residents know about the free tickets through word of mouth. All students had to do was bring their comet card, provide transportation, and watch a great movie before other students in the Dallas were able to!

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Many students have fallen in love with the Hunger Games book series, and the UT Dallas student body is no exception. The freshman in the Residence Halls had especially become interested in the battles that Peeta and Katniss had to face in the arena. With the movie approaching, many students were asking about buying tickets and viewing the movie with friends. Realizing that many students were interested in the Hunger Games, Pam Mcelrath gathered some help from four peer advisors at Residence Hall South and decided to write a proposal to buy tickets for students. The proposal was well received and UT Dallas staff approved the purchase of 266 tickets (a whole theater) to watch the Hunger Games movie at 8:00PM. Many students were excited that these tickets allowed students to see the movie four hours before the midnight premier. Because of copyright and advertisement concerns from Lionsgate this program had to be shared completely via the mouth of Peer Advisors in Residence Hall North and South. Many Peer Advisors met with residents one by one to notify students about how to access the tickets and others notified residents through their hall Facebook group. The hysteria and excitement in the Residence Halls was almost as intense as during move-in! The thankfulness and gratification the freshmen residents had was obvious and readily received by all employees of Residential Life. Each Residence Hall was given tickets to distribute on March 21st and 22nd. This meant that Kaytie Farrell and Amanda Morris, the coordinators for Residence Hall North and South, had to make sure students had filled out waiver forms correctly and gave out tickets throughout most of the two days. This program did not only require planning on behalf of Pam Mceltrath and the involved Peer Advisors, but a lot of other Residential Staff members as well through the distribution of tickets and spreading the word. In addition, four UT Dallas professional staff members had to attend the program in order to ensure safety and efficiency of the program. Ultimately the program was success because students not only enjoyed the movie, but had increased pride of being students at UT Dallas. After looking on Facebook the day after the event, many viewers shared with their friends how "cool" UT Dallas was to have this program. UT Dallas deeply cares about resident experiences and this program is true evidence of that.

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The Hunger Games premier was a program with the goal of simply providing Residence Hall residents with a fun experience and ability to watch the Hunger Games before the midnight release. Many students are on a tight budget and cannot afford a ten dollar movie ticket which factored into why Pam Mcelrath and the peer advisors planning the event faithfully followed through with the event. Pam Mcelrath and the peer advisors also wanted to make sure that all students had the equal chance to receive the tickets and immediately started spreading the word about the event as soon as it was announced to Residential Life Staff. A program has to have some appeal to students and the UT Dallas Residential Life Staff particularly paid attention to the needs and interests of residents. The final goal of this program was to produce an event that residents would not only like, but love. It appears that all these goals were met as students were very happy about receiving the tickets and talked about the event days after the premier.

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I believe that the residents of Residence Hall North and South will remember this experience as a fond memory while attending UT Dallas. This event also made a strong impact upon the history of Residential Life at UT Dallas as this was something that had never been done before. The Residential Life department and number of students living on campus has increased drastically within the past three years with the addition of new Residence Halls and the amount of programming has also followed this growth. In addition to paving the way for Residential Life programs and initiatives students also gained from the Hunger Games Premier. Sometimes students feel like college is only about getting an education, but the UT Dallas Residential Life Department has shown residents that having fun experiences with friends and within the Richardson community is also important. Having the program targeted towards freshman was also important in that students learned early on that Residential Life is willing to hold programs that benefit students purely from an entertainment standpoint. Overall one of the most poweful effects from the program was bettering the residential experience of living at UT Dallas through the implementation of a fun and relevant opportunity.

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This program was incredibly efficient and was planned in a relatively short amount of time. Pam Mcelrath was the professional staff member in charge of organizing the event and communicating with the movie theater in purchasing the tickets and cooperating with Lionsgate for the prescreening. Communication was effective and both movie theater employees and UT Dallas professional staff knew what was going on and had a plan to make sure all students had the same opportunity of receiving a ticket. Safety was a large concern for all employees at UT Dallas and was implemented in the best way possible through the signing of a waiver and allowing students to carpool themselves. Four professional staff members also attended the event in order to make sure that comet cards were scanned for attendance and emergencies, if any, could be handled appropriately. A movie theater relatively close to campus was chosen so that students did not have to travel far, and information was given to all those that were not familiar with the movie theater. Finally, the program was ultimately a success because the Hunger Games series had captured the interest of so many UT Dallas residents.

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Each campus has a different personality and therefore students may have different interests. In the future Residential Life departments at other schools could make efforts to understand what students are interested and what types of programs they would enjoy. UT Dallas recognized that a majority of students were interested in the Hunger Games and chose to serve students by offering free movie premier tickets. Also, each individual campus has a variety of different waiver forms and procedures regarding professional staff members that must be catered to each individual school. While in this case advertising via fliers was not appropriate, a group of peer advisors could accumulate in a common residential area and let individual residents know that way. While the excitement UT Dallas students had motivated them to fill out the appropriate forms and receive the tickets, schools could also set up "sign-up stations" dedicated to helping students fill out the paperwork necessary to take part in the program. Because it is likely that there will be a high influx of students asking for tickets, schools could also set up an efficient system in passing out tickets that does not take up most of a professional staff member's day.

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