The University of Montevallo is a wonderful little campus, emphasis on the word LITTLE. Attending a university with such a small campus has many benefits but it also has it’s drawbacks, the main one being that illness can spread quickly. As many of you already know, our traditional College Night festivities have just come to a close (GV).

Well College Night may be over but it certainly has left a lasting mark on campus- introducing the College Night plague. It’s a wonderful combination of the flu, walking pneumonia and your good ole’ common cold. If you were involved in College Night in any way, shape or form you’ve probably either heard of or already had the College Night plague.

What is the cause of this outbreak you may ask? Speaking as a Gold Side cheerleader, a serious lack of sleep in combination with being hella stressed 24 hours out of the day mix together to create what I’m going to call the “immune system murderer.” It’s just common knowledge that excess stress and not enough rest makes you prone to getting sick.

Another cause is how close we’ve all been for the past two months. One of the great things about College Night is how close the sides are. Literally. For the majority of College Night’s duration, if you were involved you were standing very close to about 300 other people from your side. If you were part of either side’s cast, crew, hair and makeup team or cheer team it was inevitable for you to be touching other people. Unfortunately that’s how the College Night plague spread.

We can also take into account Mother Nature’s mood swings. Illness tends to spread easier when the weather shifts drastically in a short period of time (ie having to wear 3 sweaters in the morning and then changing into a short sleeve t-shirt by noon). All in all, there are several factors that seem to have caused the College Night plague of 2017.

Now I’m no medical expert but here’s some advice: washing your hands is always a good idea, hand sanitizer is great and keeping your hands to yourself is just a good idea in general. If you’re one of the poor souls who is sick, no need to fear.

The average run-time for the plague is about 3-5 days so you won’t be sick for long. If you haven’t been sick yet, please tell us how you did it. Whether or not you’ve experienced it yet, rest assured that the College Night Plague of 2017 will go down in the books and will be remembered for years to come.