STUDENT ORGS: Shining beams of light, the clanking of sabers and the cries of clashing students vibrated from the lawn of Seagull square on the night of Sep. 5th. A group of Star-Wars-loving Salisbury University students who gather together to fight with glowing lightsabers when the sun goes down, the Knights of Bury have been a staple on the SU campus for over three years, and are now back in full force for the semester. 

Before the Knights of Bury became an official club on campus, the group consisted of a few friends with a common love for Star Wars who would meet at night time outside of Seagull square to hang out and spar with their sabers. 

Christian Ottey, an SU senior majoring in Environmental Studies, is a founding member of the Knights of Bury and the current vice president. He’s seen the group grow tremendously since its humble beginnings in his freshman year. 

“We used to be just a group of guys who’d come out here [at] Seagull and just like, fight each other, and it kind of started unofficially,” he said. “And then we were like, ‘you know, we should just make this a club’, and we did, and [it was the] best decision of my life.”

There are about fifteen official members in the Knights of Bury this semester, though the number is expected to increase as interested freshmen begin learning about their presence on campus. They gather at several different places on campus, including the Seagull square lawn, the Red Square and the Quad Lawn, all of which increase their visibility. 

The Knights of Bury is also interconnected with the Starnet Society, a club that promotes Science Fiction, Gaming, Anime and Fantasy activities on campus. Starnet’s new president, Isaiah Matthews, is also a saber-wielding knight who attends the group’s nightly gatherings. 

Ethan Miller, an SU junior majoring in Finance, has been involved with the Knights of Bury since his first year and is now the president of the club. 

“We’re basically a bunch of nerds who love Star Wars, but more than that, we all like to get together as a community and just appreciate Star Wars as a whole,” he said. “We do shows, we like to be involved with the campus community and we just like to hang out as friends.”

In addition to casually hanging out as friends on campus, the Knights of Bury has also competed in campus shows. Last year, their group won the SU talent show. 

“Honestly my favorite memory was last year’s talent show,” Miller said. “We had it set up where Darth Vader had a grand reveal, [and] we kept it hidden from the public all the way up until the [end of the] talent show, and the reaction we got when he showed up on stage was so huge, it was phenomenal.”

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By COLIN McEVERS

Featured image courtesy of Colin McEvers