More than 125 students filled the Game Room in the University Student Union Thursday night for Neon Nights, the highest student turnout in CSUN history.
The event was hosted by the The Veteran’s Resource Center (VRC) and the USU.
“The VRC [used] the game room to combine Neon Nights and Games Night together,” said David Guzman, VRC clerical assistant. “Our goal is to not only bring Veterans together but also more people and students.”
This semester, Neon Nights will be hosted on the first Thursday of every month throughout the semester. Students will get to enjoy free food such as pizza, cookies, chips and drinks. There will also be free games available, a raffle and music played by a live DJ.
“Hopefully it continues to grow and get more involvement. We want to achieve more community as well as more camaraderie,” said Guzman.
Some of the free games students played Thursday night included ping-pong, billiards, and some popular video games on the XBOX 360, Playstation 3 and Wii consoles.
Laura Hurtado, a peer mentor at the VRC, explained that having a raffle is a fun incentive for those who attend, as well as a way to thank them for coming. The prizes included two movie tickets, one Matador gift card, and a VRC water bottle.
“We’ve been doing it for two semesters already since we opened,” Hurtado said, “We’ve definitely have had more, already way more students than we had last semester.”
Janae Franklin, USU public relations assistant, said Neon Nights was created to give people a different feel of the Games Room.
Before they combined, the USU Game Room averaged 30 to 40 attendees during their events, and the VRC Game Nights averaged nearly 20 attendees. Now that they are hosting Neon Nights together the student attendees have nearly tripled.
“I’ve attended a couple Neon Nights events and I always have a lot of fun,” said Maria Lopez, 21, chicano studies major. “It’s a great thing to come and unwind after a long week. I hadn’t come to the Games Room before I heard about Neon Nights but now I come more often.”
