On Friday, Oct. 31, the 37th annual Pumpkin Carve, an Auburn tradition since the '80s, took place from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. outside of Dudley Hall. The Halloween event is hosted by Auburn’s chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), and is open to all students, faculty and community members for a day of activities and fun, including the namesake pumpkin carving contest. AIAS is an independent, non-profit, student run organization dedicated to advancing leadership, design, and service among architecture students.
Beginning in 1989, the contest has grown into a popular Auburn tradition every year, taking place on Halloween day. Just outside of Dudley Hall, attendees are able to carve pumpkins, bid on faculty-drawn napkin sketches and enter raffles for goodies provided by local businesses and partake in other activities, such as cornhole and an escape room. T-shirts and other souvenirs were available from AIAS and other organizations present.
The marquee event, the pumpkin carving, sees over 200 pumpkins registered into the contest yearly. At the conclusion of the day’s event, judges announce the winners of the contest, as well as the napkin sketch bids and raffle baskets. The pumpkins are then auctioned off to close out the day’s activities.
“Today’s been really exciting,” said Kasia Paszek, a committee chair of AIAS at the carve. “Lots of pumpkins, lots of organizations; so many people with pumpkins, which is always a great thing. It’s just been fun, and we’re really excited for in a few hours when the lights come on and all the pumpkins get lit up, to get to see them in the dark.”
A whimsical face carved into a pumpkin at CADC's 37th Annual Pumpkin Carve on Friday, October 31, 2025.
The day’s fun also included a number of other activities for students, including a large scavenger hunt and the Pie-A-Professor event. Aubie the Tiger made an appearance at the carve around noon, as well as therapy dogs for students to interact with while at the event. The annual lighting of the pumpkins took place at 5:30 p.m. following the conclusion of the carving, as the sun began to set.
“We always love that our faculty gets so involved,” said Emily Wagner, another AISA committee chair member at the carve. “We’re about to do one of the big crowd pleasers, Pie-A-Professor. We also have the lovely napkin sketches that we get to auction off. It’s always lovely to have all of their engagement.”
This year, one of the newer additions to the event, the escape room, was available for students to partake in as well. Students would go into Dudley Hall and face a set of challenges to escape and set the best time.
“Yeah, students are having a great time with it so far,” said one of the booth attendees, Peyton, for the escape room at the carve. “We’ve had a record set of four minutes today, I think. We’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from it, and everyone’s having a great time.”
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