For trivia fans who can’t wait until Wednesday night at the Colgate Inn to show their skills, the Colgate Activities Board (CAB) is now hosting trivia nights at Donovan’s Pub at the beginning of the week. Students, professors and Hamilton residents alike are all invited to join CAB on Monday nights at 7 p.m. for food, music and a whole lot of fun and random facts.

The first two trivia nights took place on October 13 and October 27, and were organized and hosted by senior Heather Roth, a member of CAB and the co-chair for the Donovan’s Pub Committee. The committee is responsible for program planning at the pub, and works with CLSI advisor Julie DiTrapano to get their projects approved. Funding comes from the gift of $10,000 given to the University from the pub’s namesake, the Donovan family. Roth said that working from a private fund gives the committee a lot of free reign in planning exciting events at the pub.

“In addition to Monday night trivia, we also have a Thursday night music series, and we will be organizing a Senior-Professor Happy Hour on Fridays,” Roth said.

Roth’s idea to start up trivia nights came from her own love of game shows and crossword puzzles, and her desire to organize an event for students right on Colgate campus. Roth uses trivia websites and a trivia almanac to come up with all the questions, which are related to general trivia categories such as music and Hollywood, as well as information and happenings specific to Colgate.

According to Roth, Donovan’s Pub trivia is a simplified version of the Wednesday night trivia at the Colgate Inn. There are four rounds of four questions each, the first round consisting of general trivia questions, the second of song identifications, the third of Colgate-related trivia questions and the fourth of picture identifications. Teams can wager two, four, six or eight points on each questions, but can use each point value only once. There is also a final bonus question on which teams can wager as many points as they wish.

Teams are instructed to come up with names for themselves, and can include any number of players. However, there must be six or fewer people on a team in order for them to win. First and second place teams receive significant prizes.

Junior Ani Kavookjian, CAB’s publicity chair, said that the committee toyed with several options for prizes.

“We needed to think of a prize that would appeal to all Colgate students, and since it would be hard to hand out actual cash, we decided Gate Cash was the next best thing, possibly even better than cash in the town of Hamilton,” Kavookjian said. “The winning team gets to split $200 and the second place team gets $100. So the prizes can go really far for those who do well.”

Roth said the first event attracted close to 150 people, which was triple the number they had expected. CAB promoted the event ahead of time with posters, an entry in the Campus Distrubtions publication, and a spray-painted sheet in front of the COOP. Roth also created a Facebook group and sent out invitations to a large number of members.

“With publicity it is always hard to tell just how many people are reading the posters and responding to other forms of advertising,” Kavookjian said. “We were really happy to hear that so many people showed up to this event.”

The second trivia night, which took place this past Monday, attracted around 60 people. As with the first event, free refreshments were provided.

The champions on Monday were the members of Team Chalupa: Seniors Max Lerner, Christian Castillo, Claire Murphy, Stephanie Hipp, Daniel Kalb and sophomore Shaina Musco.

“We were tied going into the final round, but we bet everything and ended up winning by eight points,” Lerner said. “We definitely did better than last time.”

Lerner and Castillo said they really enjoy Monday night trivia.

“It is a good reason to hang out with your friends during the week, and get free food,” Castillo said.

Lerner said he thinks the Colgate trivia is very clever and differentiates the event from that at the Colgate Inn.

Roth is equally pleased with how the trivia nights have turned out, and she is looking forward to their continuation, along with other Donovan’s Pub events, throughout the rest of the year.

“Trivia is open to any student, and I think it really promotes cross-class interaction,” Roth said. “Some teams are all freshmen, some are drawn from sports teams. New groups of people come together who wouldn’t do so normally. It is really great to get everything rolling in the fall, and we are looking forward to carrying it into spring semester.”