Although the actual judging was done by Brian Domingez, the dean of greek life, Courtney Hughes, the Panhel president, and Jeff Andritz, the IFC president, the judges were most certainly swayed by the response of the crowd.

The premise of the event is that various fraternities and sororities require their pledges to participate in the event, but otherwise let the pledges have creative free reign. Whether or not a certain amount of preparation time is required was up to the fraternity or sorority, and this was very noticeable at the contest.

About half of the pledge groups that performed fell into the decent range; far more interesting were those on opposite ends of the talent spectrum.

One group that needed to improve its act was the Fiji pledges, who performed “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” by Elvis Presley. The act was lacking in presentation and creativity, especially as compared to some of the winning acts of the evening.

By far the best presentation was by the Delta Tau Delta pledges, who gave an excellent reconstruction of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video. Using costumes and choreography to tell the story, as well as some impressive 80s dance moves, the Delta Tau Delta pledges made it clear that they had rehearsed their act many times over.

Another winning performance was that of the Acacia pledges. Their rendition of “Disco Inferno” was very well organized, and the group, for the most part, had the timing of the dance moves perfected. The atmosphere the Acacia pledges created by having a few differently-costumed characters wandering around the auditorium added to the performance.

For some of the acts, the amount of innuendo in the performance was directly proportional to the applause received, as well as the rating given by the judges. All of the sororities took advantage of the fact that the loudest portion of the audience was fraternity pledges.

The sorority pledge acts tended to be group dance numbers, while the fraternity pledge acts often had the pledges in a line. This, however, was no indication of the quality of the act, as indicated by the Acacia pledges’ performance; there were also exceptions to this trend, such as Pi Beta Phi’s second performance, in which two of the two dozen or so pledges performed “I Got A Man,” a back-and-forth repartee between a man and a woman, both played by members of the Pi Beta Phi group. Their other act was a performance of Britney Spears’ “Crazy.”

Worth noting was the performance of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges. The act combined several songs, “My Girl,” “Like a Prayer,” “Tainted Love,” and “Beat It.” Although the pledges lost favor with the crowd for repeating “Beat It,” after Delta Tau Delta had done their act, the integration of the songs was smooth, and the dancing was impressive.

Phi Sigma Kappa’s pledges had the best tone in their act, a rendition of “Because I Got High.” Tie-dye shirts and plaid jackets, as well as some inventive props, such as a broom and a wheelchair, added to the humor of the song. Hopefully their bribe of a hit off their fake bong did not influence the judges’ opinions.

Midway through the contest, winners were announced for a raffle with tickets that audience members bought on the way in. The drawing was worth a few laughs, as several prizes required repeated ticket drawings to find an actual winner.

Each act was given a score between zero and 10 by each of the judges, and at the end of the contest the points were tallied to determine the winner. An applause contest decided the result of a tie between Acacia and Pi Beta Phi, with Pi Beta Phi taking second place and Acacia receiving third. First place was swept up by Delta Tau Delta with its impressive performance of “Beat It.”