What traditions does your school have?

[gec414]

<p>Name your college as well. :)</p>

<p>Also, what is your favorite and least favorite thing about your school?</p>

[RioBravo]

<p>University of Maryland</p>

<p>Biggest tradition is rubbing Testudo’s nose. Testudo is our mascot and we have a few bronze statues of him lying around campus, although the most rubbed one is probably the one in front of our big library. Before an exam, before a job interview, before a date even, people will rub his nose for good luck. People often leave offerings to him as well. Usually it’s a half-eaten candy bar or an empty pack of smokes but occasionally you see bagels or even bottles of booze. </p>

<p>Favorite thing about my school? Not sure. I’ve loved all my classes so far, even some of the very hard and boring ones. Great professors for the most part. It’s a beautiful campus, particularly in the fall. It’s got a big campus feel but isn’t gigantic.</p>

<p>Least favorite thing? Advising is hit-or-miss, and I hate how there’s limited enrollment for business programs… although it’s certainly made me work my ass off to make sure I get in.</p>

[gec414]

<p>It seems to me like a lot of schools have a tradition of rubbing the mascot for good luck, the offerings thing I’ve never heard of before. Haha interesting!</p>

[Colleges00701]

<p>Emory Eagles go swoop.</p>

<p>I know at Rice they have a cool tradition with beer bike.</p>

[RoxSox]

<p>My favorite at my school (UW-Madison) is the Mifflin Street Block Party, which is the week before finals each May. 20,000 people attend, all carrying bottles of booze, and it’s the most insane party you’ve ever seen. People start drinking at 7AM and don’t stop till 2-3AM at night, lol. They swarm the houses and the streets. Totally insane.</p>

[gec414]

<p>RoxSox, haha! I wish every school did that. That’s hilarious and seems like a lot of fun. :)</p>

[Ghostt]

<p>Renn Fayre, which is a three-day festival known for its. Um, volatility? It opens with the Thesis Parade, where seniors march through campus, submit their theses to the registrar and burn their thesis notes. Wikipedia has a list of some other traditional Renn Fayre activities:</p>

<p>

Traditions and events include bizarre art installations, bug-eating contests, the alumni Meat Smoke, a naked Slip 'n Slide, occasional motorized couches, fireworks, naked people painting themselves blue (a tribute to the ancient Picts), a beer garden, the Glo Opera (performed at night by actors covered in EL wire and glowsticks), lube wrestling, full-contact human chess, parachuters, castle-storming and bike-jousting by members of C.H.V.N.K. 666, a fire-dancing performance by the Weapons of Mass Distraction (the college’s own Fire Troupe), a softball tournament of academic department teams, a feast contributed to by student-donated leftover board points, a cooking contest, and a general sense of mayhem.

</p>

<p>People walking around campus in nothing but blue body paint (or nothing, full stop) seems to be a particularly prominent cultural staple.</p>

<p>Paideia, which is a ten-day celebration of knowledge and learning that usually takes place just before the second semester begins. It features one-off courses in all sorts of disciplines, ranging from calligraphy to underwater basket weaving (seriously, this is a traditional Paideia course). Students are encouraged to teach classes themselves, if they have hobbies or interests they’re particularly knowledgeable about.</p>

<p>The Doyle Owl, which is a 300-pound cement owl that students have been stealing, restealing and hiding from each other since 1913. Its appearance is always a momentous occasion, and its inevitable disappearance, a call to arms. From Reed’s own website:</p>

<p>

A few years ago, the owl somehow made it into the hands of the band Tears for Fears, who put it in one of their videos. Reedies promptly sent out a commando squad to put an end to this travesty. It has been heated until it glows red. It has been covered in Vaseline while being hung off a bridge. It has been chained to buildings and people. It has been slathered with Crisco and thrown, on fire, out of the back of a car. It has witnessed legions of devoted worshippers at shrines built in its honor. Rumor has it that it was even airlifted from the top of the thesis tower via helicopter. An entire senior thesis has been devoted to an oral history of the Doyle Owl.

</p>

<p>[Reed</a> College | Admission | The Doyle Owl](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/about_reed/doyleowl.html]Reed”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/about_reed/doyleowl.html)</p>

<p>Ultimately useless but ingenious contraptions mysteriously appearing in the Student Union overnight is another one. A human-sized hamster wheel and a couch seesaw are two recent examples. I think Defenders of the Universe is the name of the student org that designs and builds these things.</p>

<p>On the subject of couches, motorized couches. The Motorized Couch Collective is a club devoted to motorizing various pieces of furniture around campus.</p>

<p>etc. etc. etc.</p>

<p>As you can see, Reed is a very traditional place. Well, it has lots of traditions, at any rate.</p>

[RioBravo]

<p>Hah, Reed sounds crazy in a fun way. And yeah Gec, last semester on the day of my last final there was a half-full bottle of Bud Light Lime, two empty bottles of it, several candy wrappers, mardi gras beads, I think a Black & Mild cigarillo and of course the entire plaza was covered in cigarette butts. And y’see, the atrium of the library has these poured cement brick columns that have space in between them. Enough space for a pack of smokes. That day there must have been 30 of them all tucked in neatly, it was kinda cool looking actually!</p>

<p>I agree with gec, that does sound pretty fun. Another tradition that I wish we had at UMD would be something like IU’s Little 500.</p>