Every Halloween the department members of LAC will take part in a faculty wide costume and Halloween decorations contest and the IITS department members have been leaving a lasting impression on their coworkers.
“We have won I think over the past three years, we’ve won various awards. If I’m not mistaken last year we won best group costume. The year prior to that we won, I think we won overall Halloween decorations and I think we were nominated the year before that,” said Jonathan Tejada, Help Desk Support specialist.
Tucked to the side of the school library is the IITS office where Jonathan Tajada can be found immersed in his work at his desk, surrounded by framed comic book covers, superhero movie posters, an Ironman figurine and other super hero decor.
“I’m very much into pop culture. I love collecting comic books, reading comic books, something that kind of falls into the Halloween decorations and stuff. I’m very much into going to conventions and a lot of the times me and my children will dress up and do cosplay outside of Halloween. So it kind of, around this time I’m kind of, I’m in my element,” Tejada shared.
Every Halloween, the various departments of Long Beach City College put together costumes and decorate their offices to display their skills and show off their appreciation for the holiday.
Jonathan explained how a panel of people manage the faculty Halloween contest and visit the participating departments, judge them on their costumes/decorations and decide the winner.
“Historically, various departments have become really competitive when it comes to their Halloween decorations and it’s gotten more elaborate with every year,” said Tejada.
Technical Support Specialist Jamie Sweet shared his thoughts about his co-workers passion for the holiday.
“After the economic collapse in 2008, there was a lot of… we’ll just call it bad morale, on campus, for everybody. Enrollment was low, people had been laid off, a lot of the managerial positions were wiped away and never came back,” Sweet said.
“Things had to change because of the economic reality and, you know, change is hard, forced change is even harder… nobody likes to see stuff like that happen so it was just like a thing that kinda bummed everybody out and I think as a result… the managers that were left and the administrators that were here kinda, started to look for ways to bring people back together.”
Sweet went onto explain how during that time, the administrators put together events for staff to participate in to keep their spirits up. For a couple of years, the administration hosted an event called the Spring Olympics, where staff would get together and compete against each other playing olympic-style games like “cornhole” or have free throwing competitions.
“So then, somewhere around the same time that the Spring Olympics came to being… the administrators at the time announced that they were gonna come around and judge peoples Halloween decor… and that’s probably, I would say, where it all began,” Sweet added.
Within the last few years, the IITS department was able to showcase their skills on year by dressing up as different members of the Adams Family. Another year, the department put together a Frankenstein family theme for their costumes and decorations.
“Our designs are very detailed… it’s not just like oh, ‘they did something on the wall’, you actually see the little details that they do and they actually focus on those little things… Every single thing that they usually do has a meaning to it,” said Associate Dean of Information Technology Services Hussam Kashou.
“One year we had a Frankenstein type theme and it sounds kinda weird but Mayra kind of built a shelf where she took pictures of all our team, 360 images of our heads and then she put ‘em in jars and put colored liquids in it so it was kind of like we were being experimented on.”
The IITS department has won best Halloween costumes/decor for their department for multiple years in a row but it is left unsaid what their costume theme is for this year and whether or not another department will take the win.
Costumes and decorations aside, the faculty Halloween contest means more to the staff than the contest itself.
“A lot of the feedback that we get typically is positive and it’s fun. It’s fun for them to come through and kind of see the amount of work that goes into doing this and it kind of boosts morale, I feel,” Tejada expressed.
“Just give it a try. You never know, it might be something that you really enjoy and I think you’re never too old or young, really, to dress up for Halloween. It’s a fun holiday.”
For student technical aid services, the IITS department can be called at (562) 938-4357 or e-mailed at helpdesk@lbcc.edu.