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Behind EXCEL Campus Activities' Fright Night screams
With the lights out and sheets of black cloth covering the Rio Grande Ballroom, there is a sense of eeriness around every corner of the constructed maze of horror: little dolls on the ground, animatronics of horror movie icons and actors whose jobs are to scream and shout. A line extends into the hallway of the second story of the University Center. Students and their families wait to catch a glimpse of the horror that awaits beyond closed doors — for something wicked this way comes. But before the ghastly sights and sounds can be seen and heard, they have to be built up. Every year, EXCEL Campus Activities hosts Fright Night, an event where the organization builds a haunted house for students and their families and friends to enjoy on Friends and Family Weekend. This year’s theme for the haunted house was “Haunted Mansion.” Planning for Fright Night starts as far back as the spring semester, when the previous year’s director team begins suggesting ideas. Haylee Jenkins, graduate assistant for Student Activities, said once the new student directors come in for the upcoming school year, they are tasked with setting up dates for workshops. Jenkins has been a part of several EXCEL Campus Activities haunted houses, and has run a Fright Night, acted in one and now serves as an adviser to the current programming director, Elizabeth Gonzales. She said her roles at Fright Night have been very different throughout the years. Being an actor, the only job is to be scary and to have fun doing it. When it comes to running the show, however, it becomes a more detail-oriented task. “We’re turning a blank room into a full house depending on the theme,” Jenkins said. “One year I did a clown themed one, so we had to think of, ‘How do I make this place look like a circus when it’s just a random ballroom upstairs of the UC?’” The theme this year, however, was more aimed at going back to the classics. “We’ve had some pretty extreme themes for the past couple years, like ‘house of cannibals,’” she said. “We’ve had a mad lab of science, and then we’ve also had some other themes, like ‘circus.’ So this really goes back to the classic, and it’s kind of the Disney twist of the ‘Haunted Mansion.’” Gonzales said the beginning months all came down to planning: What are the actors going to need, what are the actors going to be doing while the haunted house is going, what kind of room layouts will be featured? As the event got closer, it became about making props and training up the actors. Around 20 actors perform for the haunted house, all of which are EXCEL Student Activities members. “We don’t have any kind of requirements for experience, but I just really go for the people who I think are passionate about it and who have excitement with wanting to scare people,” Gonzales said. “It’s a fun thing.” Days before the haunted house started, actors began trying on their costumes and watching videos to sharpen their scaring techniques. Computer science junior Daniel Fielder is a member of EXCEL Student Activities who helped build props and acted in this year’s edition of Fright Night. In the show, he was one of the first actors that attendees interacted with. “As the butler, you’re kind of the guide for people,” Fielder said. “So you’re just trying to guide people from one place to another, but also trying to keep them a little on edge.” The props that were used this year were mostly new, with a few things recycled into the program, such as the animatronic of Leatherface from “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The hand-built props ranged from painted cardboard all the way to an 8-foot fridge or 10-foot grandfather clock. Jenkins said two out of the 11 workshops were dedicated to constructing the clock. On the day before and the day of the Fright Night haunted house, it was time to move the props upstairs. Volunteers with carts went to and from the EXCEL Student Activities cubicles in the University Center basement up to the Rio Grande Ballroom as actors put on their costumes and makeup to begin rehearsals. “It’s just a very long process that might seem stressful at the beginning, but once you get to like group number 40 during the event, it just all feels so worth it because you hear the screams, you hear the laughter and you’re actually truly making somebody’s day,” Jenkins said. When the clock struck 7 p.m. on Saturday, it was showtime. All the actors were merely players, and the Rio Grande Ballroom was their spooky stage. @wall035203 news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
UTA faculty receive 2025 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards
Civil engineering professor Mohsen Shahandashti and social work associate professor Karen Magruder have received the 2025 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Since 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards have been a way to recognize UT System educators who have demonstrated a commitment to teaching excellence through effectiveness, innovation and creativity according to the UT System website. The awards are a symbol of the importance placed on the provision of teaching and are used as an incentive for others to work on enhancing student learning. Up to 15 awards are given every year. Nominations begin in February and end in May, and the recipients are announced in September, with their awards presented during the November Board of Regents meeting. Professors who receive the award are given $25,000, a certificate and a medallion. Karen Magruder For Magruder, teaching social work is about more than just classwork or grades. The associate professor of practice said she focuses on making online learning more humanized, even when she and her students aren’t in the same room. She said she tries to make the courses interactive, organized and easy for students to connect with. “I really try to be student-centered,” Magruder said. “Humanizing online education has really been something that I’ve leaned into.” Her teaching style combines knowledge and empathy, she said. To Magruder, a good professor isn’t just someone who knows their subject but someone who’s approachable and makes students feel cared for. “A lot of times, it’s more about the passion, or the authenticity, or the enthusiasm, the availability,” she said. Magruder’s story at UTA started years before she began teaching. She earned her master’s degree in social work from the university, then came back as an adjunct instructor before joining the faculty full time. While teaching, she finished her Doctor of Social Work degree earlier this year at the University of Kentucky, and leads the School of Social Work’s new doctoral program. Magruder didn’t always plan on becoming a professor, but she said it was on her radar after she took a career aptitude test in high school. “It was kind of tied for top three, and it said the three roles I was best suited for would be being a counselor, a manager or a teacher,” she said. “And now I’m all three.” Magruder said she wants students to see how what they learn connects to real people and communities. “I just know that they’re going to make a huge impact in their work,” she said. “It’s really rewarding and fulfilling to me.” Magruder said winning the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award was both exciting and humbling. She said she feels thankful for the people who helped get her to this point. “I’m just incredibly grateful to receive that recognition and acknowledgment of all of the efforts and hard work and everything,” she said. Mohsen Shahandashti Nothing is a stupid question to Shahandashti, civil engineering professor and associate dean of administration in the College of Engineering. He has worked at UTA for 11 years and said that there is a reason he is here: to help his students learn. Shahandashti said he always knew he was going to become a teacher. As an undergraduate student, he was a teaching assistant, sometimes not getting paid for his work. He said he knew he wanted to build things and work with math and physics. After talking with several professors in different areas, he said, he decided on civil engineering. Since he was a PhD student, Shahandashti has looked for opportunities to mentor and teach undergraduate students. “My passion has been in teaching forever,” Shahandashti said. “It feels very good when you are recognized for something that your heart is in.” The most important part of teaching is the students, he said. Despite all his research, labs and patents, he said the best thing has been watching his students grow and become successful outside of the university. “It seems that a piece of me will live forever with them and their lives,” he said. Earlier this year, the Office of the Provost reached out and told him he was nominated, he said. After his nomination, he filled out forms detailing his accomplishments at UTA, which included the courses and curricula he had created. Shahandashti said the award means a lot to him. Teaching is a pillar of a university, he said, and it should be taken seriously. “I hope this award shows others that they can do it, and I hope that it motivates them to be better teachers,” he said. “This award is important not because of just me, because it is signifying the importance of a profession.” @atclements03 @taylormakynzee news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

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