Each semester, a familiar but nevertheless disconcerting frenzy seizes our campus: Humans vs. Zombies. Its devotees are ardent, and its detractors unrelenting. Worst of all, these opinions are expressed ad nauseum in this page’s kvetches and letters to the editor.
Confusion about just what exactly the game entails has done little to diminish the zombies’ zeal. Year after year, the undead return with a vengeance. For better or worse, Humans vs. Zombies has become something of an institution at UNC.
At the very least, our rendition of the game should be as good as N.C. State University’s. The organizers of UNC’s game should take a leaf out of N.C. State’s book and direct their participants’ passion toward a charitable cause.
When N.C. State’s zombies begin to roam their campus in Raleigh, they do so in support of Stop Child Trafficking Now, an international organization devoted to reducing demand for child prostitutes by targeting buyers and traffickers.
The Zombie organization’s model is simple, but apparently effective: In order to procure an official zombie bandana, students pay $5 to the Humans vs. Zombie organizers, who then donate the proceeds to the charity.
By supporting a cause, UNC’s Humans vs. Zombies could gain the legitimacy it now sorely lacks. Not only would this mitigate the scorn of nonparticipants, but the prospect of helping a worthy cause could also help the game draw new players.
To its credit, this group’s participants show a level of enthusiasm seldom matched by other student organizations at UNC. And if University policy effectively requires club sports to participate in philanthropy, it seems reasonable to expect the zombies to do something similar.
If nothing else, our zombies would do well to conform to the time-honored UNC tradition of being better than N.C. State.
