Competition during Rivalry Week is not just found between Lafayette and Lehigh — the second annual rivalry office decorating competition pitted college offices against each other on home turf.
The competition was hosted by the Lafayette Activities Forum, also known as LAF, as part of their series of Rivalry Week events. It saw 14 participants, two more than the year prior.
Here are this year’s spirited succeeders:
Third place: Gateway Career Center
Gateway’s decorations followed a tailgate theme, illustrated by the “Welcome to TailGateway” poster in the lobby. One table was fashioned as a finger football field, another held a small diorama of a tailgate, modeled with children’s toys.
“We all brought some things from home and chipped in,” said career counselor Rebecca Shafer, who was labeled as the “decorating guru” by coworker Kathy Haney.
Overseeing a plastic barbecue, clad in leopard print and standing at roughly 1.5 feet tall was grillmaster and American Girl Doll Izzy. Shafer said that Izzy, in addition to most of the toys in the room, belonged to her daughter, and was on loan until the end of the week.
“It’s nice to have the office come together to get excited about it and work together,” Shafer said.
Second place: Bailey Health Center
At Bailey Health Center, the lobby was crowded with inflatable footballs and goalposts. Large printed banners of crowded bleachers hung from the walls and the check-in desk. On the ceiling above the waiting area, a large leopard balloon dangled like a chandelier alongside streamers.
For the full effect, it was necessary to turn the overhead lights off and see the room lit by rotating strobe lights.
The force behind the decorations was an army of three staff nurses: Tricia Shoudt, Sue Bulette and Lucy Martin.
“We didn’t win last year, so go big or go home,” Martin said. “We may have gone a bit over the top.”
“We can be a little isolated from most activities on campus because we’re not able to leave our office every single day,” Shoudt said. “It was a really nice way for us to feel integrated into campus a little bit by being able to decorate an office for the kids.”
The three rallied to get everything in shape, working through the weekend.
“We lured our families into coming and helping us,” Shoudt said.
“If we don’t win this year, we should put a leopard costume on him,” Martin said, eyeing the health center’s resident dog, Finn. “He’s our chocolate leopard.”
First place: The Office of Inclusion
A trail of paper paw prints led the way to the door of the Office of Inclusion, framed by a large leopard illustration. Entrants walk through the big cat’s mouth into an office with faux turf and wallpapered with several painted banners.
“I wanted them to feel like the players when they enter a game,” said Chris Stewart, the office’s executive assistant.
When LAF representatives visited on Monday, Stewart and the office’s student employees pulled out all the stops, greeting them with strobe lights and a coordinated dance, all clouded by mist spewing out of a fog machine (which would later accidentally trigger the office’s smoke detector).
“It was really cool,” said Brady Valle ‘25, a member of LAF who judged the competition.
Stewart said that Vice President for Inclusion Ernest Jeffries wanted to “go big” because of the division’s newness.
To Stewart, the win was much more than just the prize (a bag of Lafayette merch and a large golden trophy that was delivered to the office via a pony accompanied by a student dressed as the Marquis de Lafayette).
“To me, the win felt like everybody coming together to cheer on our team and simultaneously shade Lehigh,” Stewart said. “That’s what I think the win was.”
Some personal favorite runner-ups:
The Office of Residence Life had a 100th birthday party for Roary the leopard, decorated with miniature rivalry banners past.
The Office of Sustainability had garlands of maroon paper snowflakes, each uniquely cut by student employees.
The President’s Office had a small Taylor Swift-themed display, with friendship bracelets demonstrating the office’s “Rivalry Era.”
Disclaimer: Elisabeth Seidel ’26 and News Editor Makenna McCall ’27 are employees in the Office of Sustainability. Assistant News Editor Clara Witmer ’27 is an employee in the Office of Residence Life.
