Answer: Never too big, according to the dedicated members of various organizations raising large cut out letters for their respective organizations.

As the Bryce Jordan Center changes scenery from its blue plastic seats to be painted by the colorful t-shirts of students, the large letters representing student organizations stand out in the stands. Last year we conducted an unofficial contest of cutout letters, in which Boulevard took the prize with its revolutionary light up BLVD letters. This year, though BLVD has returned with its LED-illuminated letters, the new trend for the cutout letters at THON 2014 is seemingly, “Go Big or Go Home.”

These letters have been traditionally large, however, some of the cutout letters in attendance in the BJC this year are significantly larger than in previous years. Noticeably, the largest letters present in the Bryce Jordan Center seem to be those belonging to Sigma Delta Tau sorority, Kappa Delta Rho, Sigma Pi fraternity, Delta Gamma sorority, and Delta Tau Delta fraternity and Delta Zeta sorority.

These signs certainly raises some questions to the overly curious, like myself. I meandered through the BJC to find out.

To get a good idea on how large these signs actually are, take a look. I’m a modest 5′-4″.

 The width of the gamma of Delta Gamma is about 5 feet!!

The Delta of Delta Zeta and Delta Tau Delta is just about as tall as me!

The Delta of Kappa Delta Rho beats out the other letters by just the slightest difference in height!

How much time and effort went into making these signs?

The sisters of Delta Gamma explained that the styrofoam used for their letters is reused every year, and the only new work put into the signs is a simple re-duct taping project done by the sisters.

According to a sister of Sigma Delta Tau, six sisters made the letters out of two-inch rigid styrofoam for both SDT and KDR.

“[The sisters] are better at creative things,” a brother of Kappa Delta Rho explained.

Having the members of sororities make the letters seemed like a recurring pattern, seeing as the sisters of Delta Zeta also cut out and spray painted the letters for Delta Tau Delta and Delta Zeta.

So how heavy are these signs?

Like many of the signs present, the signs are mostly made of styrofoam, and in cases where the styrofoam may not be as thick as SDT and KDR’s letters, the letters are reinforced by lightweight wood. Therefore, these signs are comfortable to hold up. Even I could hold up these letters without any struggle, and I consider my Samsung Galaxy to be pretty hefty.

How do the people feel about these letters when standing directly behind them? I mean, they are pretty large.

“We don’t mind at all because we move the letters around,” said a sister of Delta Zeta. Teamwork is really beautiful.