Rider Hall set to host haunted house

Students at the University of Northern Iowa won’t have to leave campus to experience Halloween thrills and chills this weekend. 

Rider Hall will host a haunted house in its basement on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 from 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. Admission is $5 or $4 with a canned food item, which will be donated to the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.

David Schmid, residence life coordinator in Rider Hall, said Rider’s tradition of putting on a haunted house for Halloween was revived after taking a year off last year.  He added that the students planning the haunted house are working to make it “bigger and better” than previous years.

Ben Struik, a UNI freshman who has been working on the haunted house since the first week of school, said, “Even more thought and detail has been put into it than in previous years.  We brought a lot of creative ideas to the table.”

UNI senior Joel Rodriguez is the chair for the committee that is planning the event, and said that the haunted house will play off common phobias. 

Christina Bettini, a UNI sophomore, added that many of the ideas for the haunted house came from things its members are afraid of.

“We put in our input on what scared us the most,” she said.    

Schmid said that planning the haunted house has been a major commitment for the students involved.

“It’s been a lot of work.  The students have put their heart and soul into it,” he said.

Bettini also noted the committee’s hard work in planning the event, and said that having the haunted house in the basement of a dormitory has presented unique challenges.

“I’ve learned it’s a lot more intense than I thought, especially with safety.  There’s so much you have to pay attention to,” she said.

The committee wasn’t able to use items like strobe lights and fog machines because of safety regulations in the dorms.  Despite this, Bettini said that the committee has found alternative ways to scare participants.  She urged students to come to the haunted house.

“It’s easy-access, it’s put together by some of (students’) peers, and it’s cheaper than other haunted houses, which doesn’t mean it will be less scary,” she said.

Rodriquez also encouraged students to attend the haunted house.

“It will be a lot smaller line, and a lot smaller wait.  Hopefully, you’ll see someone you know...it’s just a nice way to have something to do on campus,” he said.




 

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