The teddy bears hanging from nooses around campus are only one indication that Big Game Week has undergone a change this year. The Axe Committee, the ASSU, class presidents and even dorms are holding activities in attempts to foster school spirit. In anticipation of the upcoming football match against Cal tomorrow, student groups on campus have modified the traditional activities of Big Game Week to create excitement not only about Big Game, but about Stanford in general.

Several changes and additions have been made to Big Game Week this year, culminating in the pre-game rally in front of Hoover Tower last night. Junior Amy Daley, chair of the Axe Committee, said that alterations were necessary to boost enthusiasm for the football game.

“Last year we had hardly any people at the rally,” said Daley. “This year, we want to get people out and support the football team.”

The Axe Committee changed the location of the rally and increased publicity about the event. Also, students received free t-shirts from the Stanford Athletic department and free food donated by Stanford Dining at the rally.

“There’s been a lot of vandalism around campus by Cal supporters,” Daley said. “We want to at least get people excited about the rivalry.”

In addition to the traditional skewering of the teddy bear atop the Claw in White Plaza, one new addition to Big Game Week is “abuse-a-bear,” in which students can buy a miniature stuffed bear with a Cal ribbon and a noose around its neck and torment them as they see fit. The “abused bears” are being sold by the Axe Committee.

“School spirit in recent years hasn’t been very impressive,” Daley added. “Be proud you go to Stanford, and have fun this week.”

Sophomore Emma Vaughn, a class president, said that other changes to Big Game Week include a “Beat the Sheet out of Cal” contest, which was organized by the Student Life Committee of the ASSU Undergraduate Senate, in which students compete to create the best anti-Cal banner out of a bed sheet.

Also, throughout the week, advertisements about Big Game ran on the Innovative Student Information Services (ISIS) flat screens across campus, and many professors performed stunts in their bigger lectures.

These new activities were created to encourage Big Game enthusiasm and to “get Stanford students away from their books for a little while,” Vaughn wrote in an e-mail.

She added that activities are not class-specific. “The goal of the week is to unify Stanford as a whole,” Vaughn said. “If we separated [Big Game Week] into class events, I think things would become more convoluted and complex.”

Several dorms have been capitalizing on Big Game to increase their own spirit. Freshmen in particular have several such opportunities, including the competition to achieve the highest percentage of dorm residents attending the Gaieties performance, for which the winners are awarded the best seats in the house.

Donner, the freshman dorm in Stern, has even turned Big Game Week into an enterprise by selling T-shirts for $10 each. On the back of several designs that say “Berkeley” on the front are a variety of phrases, including “I hate myself,” “Isn’t the front degrading enough?” and “I’m sorry, Mom.” They have become increasingly popular over the past few weeks, making a profit larger than the dorm expected from the fundraiser.

Freshman Sam Fankuchen, president of the Donner dorm government, said that the dorm has made over $3,000 through the sale of about 900 shirts.

“In the summer, I thought of making them by myself or with friends to make money,” he said. “When I got here, though, it was a way for the dorm to show effort in contributing to our dorm funds.”

Fankuchen believes the popularity of about 15 designs is the result of a student population suffering from the lack of a suitably scathing T-shirt for Big Game.

“People here are smarter and wittier,” he said. “We need smarter and wittier Big Game shirts.”

An added benefit of the fundraiser has been the dramatic improvement in dorm unity.

“Donner spirit is like no other,” he said. “Everyone’s wearing a shirt from a freshman dorm.”

Freshman Justin Chung blames a lack of campus involvement on the interference of midterms. “There would be more school spirit if there weren’t midterms,” he said. “Although the activities definitely create unity on campus, midterms just really kill school spirit.”

Fellow freshman Jai Krishnan added that he was too busy to attend earlier Big Game Week events. “I’m excited about Big Game itself and Gaieties, but I’m disappointed that I missed most activities because of midterms or studying for midterms,” he said. “I do believe that spirit is not as much a dorm or class thing as it is a school thing, though.”

Classics Professor Marsh McCall demonstrated his own school spirit during his Literature of Crisis Introduction to Humanities lecture yesterday morning with Latin Big Game chants.

“Diamerizdete tous allantas!” he wrote on the overhead.

Translation: “Give it thoroughly to the sausages!”