BY: CATHERINE DAYTON

Almost every Thursday night the Franciscan University of Steubenville Board Game Association, or FUS BGA for short, hosts a Game Night in Saints Kolbe and Clare Residence Halls.

Residence Director Kyle Murphy commented on the effect Game Night has on the community, saying, "Board games are an excellent way to bring people together and interact with each other."

The BGA's staff advisor, Kevin Lee, who works in the Development office at Franciscan, said that "learning new games and teaching new games" is his favorite part of the night. For BGA president Mark Erste, it is the opportunity "to learn new games and exercise our minds in new ways."

Erste explained the roots of Game Night saying, "We introduced Game Night last semester to provide students the opportunity to play games and have fun. Four times a semester we have a 'Game Bash' where we have pizza provided by Student Government."

"People bring their own games," Erste said, and they have quite a variety. There are board games, card games, strategy games, war games, smaller subcategories of games that you have probably never even heard of before (Ameritrash?), and other party games.

Do you have too much homework? Are you tired of your roommate who just will not stop talking to their boyfriend/ girlfriend/ pet albino cat on Skype? Do you need an escape, or a break from the ever growing pile of homework and candy wrappers? Maybe you have a term paper due at 7am Friday, or perhaps you should take out the trash, or deal with that growing pile of laundry on the floor of your closet.

Go to Game Night; from 6pm to 11pm you can detach yourself from your worries. You could spend an hour playing a game of dominoes on steroids, "Ingenius", or settle in a new land with "Settlers of Catan", or maybe just play a good old-fashioned game of Chess.

Take a break, meet some new people, and play a game.