On Thursday, April 10, an excited crowd of Southwestern students (mostly members from SU’s eight panhellenic organizations) filed into the Robertson Gym to enjoy a night of pageantry and charity: Zeta Tau Alpha’s Big Man on Campus competition. Big Man on Campus is a large-scale fundraising event held by ZTA chapters across the country; the goal of this event is to raise $4000 to donate to organizations dedicated to breast cancer awareness and education. 

The premise of the competition is simple: six fraternity members, each representing a different Greek organization, spend a week participating in challenges, fundraisers, and social media events, all to earn points in the fight to be crowned Mr. Southwestern at the end of the pageant. Aaron Garza (‘26), Will Jackson (‘26), Dugan Sexton (‘25), and Lukas Nowlin (‘27) represented Phi Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, and Kappa Alpha, respectively. The participating sororities, Alpha Xi Delta and Alpha Delta Pi, chose Sean Lade (‘25) and Devin Yu (‘27), respectively, to represent them. 

The competition began on Thursday, April 3 with a social media challenge: each participating man created a short Instagram reel, and the video that received the most likes, shares, and comments pushed its creator 50 points closer to the Mr. Southwestern crown. Members of participating Greek organizations went all out to support their chosen champions; Lade’s video ultimately won the challenge, receiving 8,519 comments from frenzied AXiDs, while Jackson took the second-place spot with 7,704 comments from Kappa Sigmas and their associates. 

The next day saw a new challenge: “Run A Mile In These Louboutins.” Each of the six men were tasked with acquiring a pair of heels and wearing them to run two laps around the Academic Mall. Certain footwear choices proved to be thoroughly impractical: one man had his wedges disintegrate off of his feet over the course of the race, while Jackson’s six-inch lace-ups proved to be more trouble than they were worth as he limped dead last to the finish line. In the end, Garza finished first with Lade hot on his heels, earning themselves 100 points for first place and 75 for second. 

The third and fourth days of the competition were some of the most involved, with each man receiving a bingo card with challenges like “shave your head ($100),” “eat a cheeseburger in under a minute ($10),” and “propose to someone who is wearing pink ($35),” with onlookers gaining the opportunity to donate specific amounts of money to make the men carry out specific challenges. This resulted in Sexton and Lade both shaving their heads on the Phi Delta Theta lawn, earning a combined $250 for breast cancer awareness efforts. 

As each competitor scrambled to complete all of their assigned bingo challenges, the final days of competition relied on action from their supporters. ZTA members set up “Penny Wars” in Bishop’s Lounge, presenting the opportunity for members of Greek organizations to earn points by donating pennies to their own baskets, or to sabotage their competition by adding nickels, dimes, and quarters, each representing a certain number of negative points, to their opponents’ baskets. The next day was the “Best Legs” competition, allowing supporters to vote on which competitor’s waist-down photo was the best. The final day was a “Pink Out,” honoring the chosen color of breast cancer awareness as each of the competing men dressed themselves head-to-toe in hot pink garb. Even Monstrance participated – anyone walking the Academic Mall on April 9 would have seen the famous sculpture decked out with a pink cowboy hat and sparkly skirt.

Finally, after a grueling week of competition and challenge, the six men were ready to grace the stage of the Big Man On Campus Pageant. The Rob was crowded with excited onlookers, pink balloons, and banners declaring the slogan “Until 1 in 8 becomes none in 8,” referring to the fact that the statistical risk of  U.S. women developing breast cancer is estimated to be about one in eight. Many of the students in the crowd wore pink ribbon pins, symbolizing hope, solidarity, and awareness for all of those suffering from breast cancer.

The program began with an introduction of the esteemed judges: Dr. Jeffrey Easton, Dr. Debika Sihi, Ms. Ella Sedwick, and Ms. Sheri Clayton. Throughout the competition, these judges would take into account each competitor’s chosen talent, affinity for ZTA trivia, description of their personal connection to breast cancer, and performance during a lip synch battle to determine which would be worthy of the Mr. Southwestern crown. 

The men demonstrated a wide variety of talents, beginning with Sexton reciting a slam poetry piece that extolled the virtues of ZTA women, complained about construction on campus, and referenced each of the judges, among other things. Jackson followed this up by serenading the audience with his rendition of “Yesterday” by The Beatles; Yu also chose to sing, crooning the lyrics of “Your Man” by Josh Turner. Garza chose a more energetic route, performing a dance routine in a black tutu and crop top, while Nowlin performed a limbo routine which he finished by backflipping over the limbo bar. Finally, Lade demonstrated his ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.

After a costume change, rounds two and three of the pageant took on a question-and-answer format. Each contestant was first asked various trivia questions about Zeta Tau Alpha, including when it became part of the Panhellenic Council, what its patron goddess is, and who its first president was. Many of the men seemingly studied their ZTA history, passing this section with flying colors. Next, each competitor was asked why they chose to participate in this fundraising event, and to describe their personal connection to breast cancer. Many described their experiences with relatives suffering from the disease, while Jackson expressed interest in medical school and cancer research, underlining the importance of understanding the personal side of the issue.

For the ending section of the pageant – the very last challenge in this week-long ordeal – the men once again changed outfits, returning to the stage in a variety of costumes and lipsynching to Rihanna’s “Umbrella.” Finally, the ranking of each man (a combination of their points collected throughout the week and their performance during the pageant) was revealed: Will Jackson took sixth place, Dugan Sexton fifth, Lukas Nowlin fourth, and Devin Yu third. Before the announcement of the winner, Sean Lade and Aaron Garza took each other’s hands and stood together on the stage, waiting with baited breath to learn which one of them would earn the crown once and for all. Finally, the winner was announced: Aaron Garza, the representative from Phi Kappa Alpha!

After this announcement, the exec board of ZTA revealed that they had far outraised their initial goal of $4000, instead finding that over the past week, the Southwestern community donated close to $7000 to support breast cancer research, education, and awareness. As silly and fun as it was, Big Man On Campus and events like it can have real, positive, lasting impacts on the world – all thanks to the participation and generosity of our community, and the commitment of a group to further an important cause.