In celebration of Pi Day, the chemistry faculty is placing their fate, and their faces, in the hands of their students. Auburn University Chemistry Graduate Student Association is hosting its first Pi Day, which includes a contest to pie your professor.
Students can purchase a vote for $1 and choose the professor they want to be pied.
Students will be selected at random from the votes cast to see who receives the opportunity to pie the winner.
Jessica Crumbley, Walter Casper and Nick Klann serve as presidents for CGSA.
Crumbley said the money will go into the CGSA fund to sponsor future events and compensate the winning faculty with gift cards.
The eligible faculty members are Eduardus Duin, Christopher Easley, Holly Ellis, John Gorden, Peter Livant, Howard McLean, Konrad Patkowski, Michael Squillacote and Stephen Swann.
Voting ends Thursday, March 7.
Crumbley said that the number of faculty members pied would be contingent on the number of votes.
If the votes are spread among a few faculty members, each might receive multiple pies to the face, or if there is a clear front runner that faculty member might be the sole victim of the barrage.
The predicted winners for the contest are reported as Livant, Squillacote, or Swann.
Livant and Squillacote, teach freshmen and sophomore level classes and have a large amount of exposure, with students who either love, or loathe them.
"Squillacote may be up there," Casper said. "Though this isn't for some sort of revenge."
Crumbley said the faculty volunteered and the competition is purely for fun, though some students are enjoying the opportunity to get back at their professors.
"I've voted for Squillacote and I'm sure he'll win," said Billy McCann, graduate student in computational organic chemistry. "He's the bane of any organic chemistry student's life. He shall receive justice."
Swann, lab coordinator for freshman chemistry, is considered the dark horse in the competition.
"I would guess Swann because he has so many students that have gone through his labs," Crumbley said. "Even though some students are in different general chemistry labs, they all see Swann."
Some students are showing their support for CGSA in other ways.
"I'm going to vote for all of them because it's for a good cause," said Haley Medlen, junior in biomedical sciences.
CGSA also organizes tailgate cookouts for football games and has had fundraisers such as Deck the Halls for a Cause .
The Pi Day Contest is an effort to expand and increase their presence on campus.
"I think Pi Day is a great idea," Medlen said. "CGSA has really made an impressive effort to get more student involvement."
Another candidate, John Gorden, said fun activities such Pi Day are an effort to facilitate relationships between faculty and students.
"Students are used to us standing up in front of them telling them what's important, but it's not always fun," Gorden said.
Gorden said approximately 1,900 students take freshmen chemistry during the spring semester.
"It's not so much a competition between us as a way to get students to interact with us outside of the classroom," Gorden said.
Pi Day is celebrated annually Thursday, March 14. Because that falls during spring break, CGSA's contest results will be revealed March 8 at 3:14 p.m. at the chemistry building lawn.
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