Jasmin Campoya

People were welcomed at UTEP’s Centennial Plaza for a movie on the lawn, hosted by the Student Engagement and Leadership Center on April 13, 2021.

UTEP’s Student Engagement & Leadership Center (SELC) hosted Movies on the Lawn on Tuesday, April 13 at Centennial Plaza for a screening of “Greenland” directed by Ric Roman Waugh. 

“Movies on the lawn is a collaboration between SELC and Union Services,” said Anthony Vincent, fraternity and sorority life coordinator for UTEP and one of the coordinators for Movies on the Lawn. “We wanted to give students the opportunity to be outdoors engaging with each other and to provide students with an awesome experience in a movie.”  

“Greenland,” a 2020 film, centers around Gerard Butler’s character, John Garrity, embarking on a journey with his estrange wife Allison played by Morena Baccarin and their young son, to find a possible haven in Greenland from a planet killing comet hurling toward Earth.  

UTEP students and faculty members spread across Centennial Plaza on blankets and lawn chairs with friends and family, as they followed Garrity family through the various obstacles they encountered to avoid extinction. 

 “I understand that not every student is comfortable being back on campus in person just yet, but I know that there are students who are really taking advantage of these in person opportunities and the events that we are putting on,” Vincent said. “I know that in the fall when we transition into being in–person, we are definitely going to see more students at our events and they’re really going to take advantage of all of the opportunities.” 

Some individuals who attended the event included Christian Peruyero, a UTEP history student, and Luis Suira, who graduated with his master’s in Latin American Border studies at UTEP in 2019. 

“This is a great opportunity to meet students and to recruit them to our fraternity,” said Suira, who is a part of Sigma Lambda Beta Fraternity. “I would like to see SELC show more culturally cautious events that will mobilize the students on campus to be more cautious about the community that they are in and how their education impacts the community as a whole.” 

Peruyero agreed and said he would also enjoy seeing Movies on the Lawn focused on current issues happening at the border, which he believes would be a good opportunity to educate borderland students. 

SELC will be hosting another Movies on the Lawn at 8 p.m., April 27, where it will be screening “Anchorman 2.”  

A list of events hosted by SELC may be found on MineTracker at minetracker.utep.edu/organization/selc 

Alyson Rodriguez may be reached at prospector@utep.edu; @alyson_rod1127 on Twitter.