St. John’s has won a national competition that will bring The Buried Life, a popular MTV show, to campus, SGI and Verizon announced on Dec. 6.

As a result, the cast of the show will give a motivational speech to the student body this spring, said John Marchi, the Junior senator. The plans for the speech have not been set-up, but a committee will be established to work out logistics.

The Buried Life is a reality TV show where four men not only try and live out their own “bucket lists” but try and help others live out theirs. As of Oct. 25, Entertainment Weekly reported MTV had cancelled the show after two seasons.

The University beat California State University, Chico by 140 votes. Between the two schools, there were approximately 8,000 votes.
“We went neck and neck with them until the night of,” Marchi said.

The Junior senator said voting closed at midnight the Friday before, when Verizon – the host of the contest – reported voting was so close they would have to audit the votes. Roughly three hours before voting was closed, the two universities were said to be tied. Marchi said S.G.I. pushed to get as many votes as possible to bring The Buried Life to campus.

“We swept the campus and we tried to vote on as many computers as possible,” Marchi said. The contest allowed one vote per I.P. address. Students promoting the contest went to the computer labs and asked occupants to please vote.

S.G.I. had been promoting the event since mid-October. Marchi was one of the main promoters of the competition after speaking with Verizon representativesat the Career Fair. S.G.I. worked with the Career Center to promote the contest and get as many votes as possible.

“S.G.I. partnered with the Career Center because the TV show is so in line with the University’s mission,” Marchi said.
Patrick Schuster helped to pass out flyers to raise awareness for involvement in the process. He said Verizon also provided pamphlets about the contest to hand out.

Schuster said he was happy that the University had won the contest and was interested in what the speech will be about.
“I’m kind of excited for next semester when they’re going to come,” he said. “[I am] just looking forward to seeing what they’re going to bring.”