Staff Assembly

Halloween Costume Contest

Wednesday, Oct. 1 - Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

UCR Staff Assembly invites all UCR staff to participate in our annual Halloween costume contest! The contest is open from Wednesday, Oct. 1 - Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. Please review the complete rules and categories below. 

CATEGORIES

1. Most participants (a maximum of 20 people per photo)
2. Scariest
3. Best theme
4. Best solo costume
5. People’s Choice (most likes on Instagram -- likes will be counted on the Staff Assembly profile's post ONLY)
6. Staff Assembly’s choice

CONTEST RULES

Costumes must be appropriate for work. We ask that all costume choices reflect cultural sensitivity by recognizing that costuming based on simplistic ethnic, racial, gender, religious, disability, and other hurtful stereotypes disrespects cultural identities by reducing them to caricature.

• A maximum of 20 participants per photo.
• One photo submission per household/office/department/unit /immediate work group (pick your best photo).
• No Photoshop • No photo-illustration • No extensive retouching • No graphic filters.
  • Acceptable adjustments: Levels, brightness, contrast, curves, exposure, desaturate, Instagram filters, VSCO filters, etc.
  • Unacceptably extensive retouching - examples: Recoloring skin, photoshopping additional elements into photos, distorting, skewing, rotating, scaling, warping, perspective changing, or applying filters with graphic/animated elements (e.g,. Snapchat / Instagram / Facebook / TikTok / etc.).
• Play fair, make it tasteful, and be creative.
• Costumes do not have to be worn all day.

ENTRY SPECIFICS

• Submission is due by 5 p.m. on Friday, October 31. Please email your contest submission to staffassembly@ucr.edu. (Note: Contest entries must be received by email to be eligible.)
• Please include a caption, your photo theme or category, any personal Facebook or Instagram tags you would like us to include, and the department or individuals who are participating in the photo. We need to know who to grant the prize to if you win!

For fun, you can also post your Halloween photos (including pictures of your home Halloween decorations, your family's costumes, or your pet's costume) to social media and tag Staff Assembly! These will not count as contest entries, but are a fun way for us to build community.

PRIZES

Prizes will include a grand prize, a medium prize, and several small prizes. Prize items include a pizza party, coffee and donuts, gift cards, and UCR merchandise.

Winners of each category will be chosen during the week after the contest ends and will be announced on social media and notified through Email.

*Winners must claim their prize within a month and have until the end of the current academic year (May 2026) to redeem their prize.