From their beginnings, campuses emerged as hotbeds of traditions and folklore. American college students inhabit a culture with its own slang, stories, humor, beliefs, rituals, and pranks. Simon J. Bronner takes a long, engaging look at American campus life and how it is shaped by students and at the same time shapes the values of all who pass through it. The archetypes of absent-minded profs, fumbling jocks, and curve-setting dweebs are the stuff of legend and humor, along with the all-nighters, tailgating parties, and initiations that mark campus tradition—and student identities. Undergraduates in their hallowed halls embrace distinctive traditions because the experience of higher education precariously spans childhood and adulthood, parental and societal authority, home and corporation, play and work. Bronner traces historical changes in these traditions. The predominant context has shifted from what he calls the “old-time college,” small in size and strong in its sense of community, to mass society’s “mega-university,” a behemoth that extends beyond any campus to multiple branches and offshoots throughout a state, region, and sometimes the globe. One might assume that the mega-university has dissolved collegiate traditions and displaced the old-time college, but Bronner finds the opposite. Student needs for social belonging in large universities and a fear of losing personal control have given rise to distinctive forms of lore and a striving for retaining the pastoral “campus feel” of the old-time college. The folkloric material students spout, and sprout, in response to these needs is varied but it is tied together by its invocation of tradition and social purpose. Beneath the veil of play, students work through tough issues of their age and environment. They use their lore to suggest ramifications, if not resolution, of these issues for themselves and for their institutions. In the process, campus traditions are keys to the development of American culture.

Every year since 1961, football and basketball players at Middlebury College in Vermont pick up their wheelchair-bound fan, Butch, and bring him to the stadium sidelines to watch their games. At John Brown University, the volleyball team distributes candy to fans before each match. For years, fans attending a University of Maryland football game rubbed the bronze statue of their terrapin mascot, Testudo. Traditions like these are visible statements of school loyalty, and they are part of why college sports are unforgettable. College Sports Traditions: Picking Up Butch, Silent Night, and Hundreds of Others details not only the well-known traditions of major universities, but also the obscure customs of smaller schools. Approximately 1,200 traditions are captured, covering almost every college sport. It depicts such traditions as The Ohio State University’s “Script Ohio,” University of Kansas’s “Waving the Wheat,” Linfield College’s “End Zone Couches,” and even a list of traditions that involve streaking. The wide variety of traditions covered in this book are grouped thematically, including: Before the game During the game After a score After the game Mascot traditions Preseason traditions Traditions probably not university sanctioned Rivalries Yells, cheers, and chants From the crazy and eccentric to the touching and meaningful, these traditions connect fans and athletes across generations. The first of its kind, this comprehensive volume encompasses hundreds of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. Featuring 75 photos that bring many of these events to life, College Sports Traditions will be an entertaining read for every sports fan.

Winner, Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, Society of Architectural Historians. Campus is an exciting guide to a distinctive type of architectural planning, one that has reflected changing educational ideals from Colonial times to the present, and - as the embodiment of the ideal community - has often expressed utopian social visions of America. Organized chronologically, Campus looks at new patterns of open planning at Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale; the ambitious scale and dramatic setting of schools such as the University of Virginia; the park-like campuses of the land-grant colleges that represented a democratic reaction against elitist traditions; the Beaux-Arts campuses of Columbia University and the universities of California and Minnesota; the enclosed Gothic quadrangle at Universities like Princeton; and at the more recent flexible and dynamic campus plans that are a response to new educational needs. Among the architects and planners whose work is examined are Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Alexander Jackson Davis, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ralph Adams Cram, Cope & Stewardson, Charles Z. Klauder, James Gamble Rogers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, William Turnbull, and Charles Moore. Paul Venable Turner is Professor of Architectural History at Stanford University. An Architectural History Foundation Book.

How American campus life shapes students, and how students shape campus lore

“Deeply felt, powerful, devastating and, ultimately, hopeful.” — Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star “Powerful and necessary…an important, timely book.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be “A story that belongs in every library.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “A thoughtfully crafted argument for feminism and allyship.” —Kirkus Reviews From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Brendan Kiely, a stunning novel that explores the insidious nature of tradition at a prestigious boarding school. Prestigious. Powerful. Privileged. This is Fullbrook Academy. Jules Devereux just wants to keep her head down, avoid distractions, and get into the right college, so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind. Jamie Baxter feels like an imposter at Fullbrook, but the hockey scholarship that got him in has given him a chance to escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches, whose mantra rings in his ears: Don’t disappoint us. As Jules and Jamie’s lives intertwine, and the pressures to play by the rules and to keep the school’s toxic secrets, they are faced with a powerful choice: remain silent while others get hurt, or stand together against the ugly, sexist traditions of an institution that believes it can do no wrong.

Located in the picturesque northeastern corner of North Carolina in Murfreesboro and Hertford County, Chowan College is the second oldest of the state's Baptist colleges. Founded in 1848, the school began as Chowan Baptist Female Institute and did not begin admitting male students until 1931, almost a century after its opening. In 1937, the Great Depression forced the school to become a two-year junior college, but it regained four-year status in 1992. Since then, Chowan College has enjoyed a myriad of successes, including being named one of the South's premier third-tier comprehensive colleges and ranked ninth in terms of diversity by U.S. News and World Report. Recognized for such programs as elementary education, graphic communications, and environmental science, Chowan College is truly one of the South's hidden treasures. The black-and-white images in Chowan College trace the vast history of the school's existence, while also capturing the natural beauty of the campus. Through the vintage photographs and accompanying narrative, Chowan College's tradition unfolds-providing a detailed glimpse of the institution's athletic, extracurricular, social, and aesthetic history. This pictorial chronicle also showcases the architecture of the campus and displays the familiar faces of Chowan's past.

For more than sixty years, the Memorial Student Center-MSC-has served as the "living room" of the Texas A&M University campus. The MSC was conceived as a memorial to Aggies who lost their lives in the two world wars. More than just a monument to the fallen comrades, however, the MSC and programs initiated by its first director helped the university expand its focus to embrace an even more inclusive future. Author Amy Bacon surveys the development of two functions that quickly became vital to the mission of the MSC: a leadership laboratory for students and its centerpiece location as a place of extracurricular cultural and intellectual enrichment. She demonstrates how the MSC and the traditions that have developed around it blend with the national student union movement in a unique way that enhances the institutional heritage and aspirations of Texas A&M. This attractively illustrated book draws heavily on recorded oral histories, archives, and extensive interviews with key administrative leaders and students. Building Leaders, Living Traditions narrates the story of an institution that has transformed and enriched the lives of thousands of Aggie students and is poised to continue its vital mission. Since publication in 2009, the MSC renovation and expansion have been completed successfully, ensuring the "c" will continue to be central to students and former students alike. While an undergraduate at Texas A&M, Amy L. Bacon '91 served as the vice president of development for the Memorial Student Center. She holds a master's degree in public history from the University of Houston.