Traditions Of Pomona College

Numerous traditions have been established at Pomona College, a highly selective liberal arts college in Claremont, California, since its founding in 1887. They have varying levels of popularity, longevity, and institutional recognition. Taken together, they are a significant component of the school's culture and identity, promoting social cohesion among students and other community members.

Early traditions at Pomona, such as Pole Rush and banner springs, often took the form of rivalries between different class years, and frequently involved hazing. After World War II, these were gradually replaced with college-wide traditions, including the college's most intensely carried tradition, a reverence for the number 47, which began in 1964. Overall, the '' Yale Daily News'' characterizes Pomona's traditions as "often more quirky and fun than steeped in history and legend."

Extant traditions

47 reverence

The number 47 has historical implications to and has been incorporated into various aspects of campus life. The tradition began in the summer of 1964, when two students, Laurie Mets and Bruce Elgin, conducted a research project seeking to find out whether the number occurs more often in nature than would be expected by chance. They documented various 47 sightings, and professor Donald Bentley produced a false mathematical proof that 47 was equal to all other integers. The number became a meme among the class, which spread once the academic year began and snowballed over time.

Notable 47 sightings include the fact that Pomona is located off of exit 47 of Interstate 10, and the fact that the largest residential building on campus, Mudd-Blaisdell (formally Florence Carrier Blaisdell and Della Mullock Mudd Hall, a title with 47 characters), was completed in 1947 and contains a staircase with 47 balusters.

Many Pomona alumni have deliberately inserted 47 references into their work. Pomona hosts a community service–oriented celebration every April 7 (abbreviated 4/7 in the U.S.). In the early 2010s, the college's clock tower was set up to chime on the 47th minute of the hour.

Cup dropping

Pomona's Frary Dining Hall has an open refectory with a vaulted ceiling and tiled floor. The acoustical properties of these attributes create a loud clattering sound when one of Frary's plastic cups is dropped. Whenever someone accidentally drops their cup, it is traditional for everyone else in the dining hall to finish their drink and do likewise.

Mascot

Mufti

Pomona's secret society is called Mufti, meaning "out of uniform". It is known for gluing small sheets of paper around campus with cryptic puns offering social commentary on campus happenings. The society originated in the late 1940s and has waxed and waned in activeness over the years. Its postings, known as "burgers", typically contain three lines, with the center one being most prominent. They are glued to surfaces around campus using a figure eight shape.

Orientation Adventure

As part of Pomona's 10-day orientation, incoming students spend four days off campus completing an "Orientation Adventure" or "OA" trip. Options in recent years have ranged from backpacking in Sequoia National Forest to sea kayaking in Channel Islands National Park. Begun in 1995, the OA program is one of the oldest outdoor orientation programs in the nation.

Pranks

Pomona students have committed a number of pranks over the years that have entered into college lore. Notable pranks include:
*In 1911, two students snuck into the dean's office and buried the large safe there beneath the floorboards; it was not discovered until several weeks later.
*In 1968, students stole the Christmas tree from Frary Dining Hall and moved it to the top of Smith Clock Tower.
*Chemistry professor R. Nelson Smith (class of 1938, taught 1945–1982) fostered an active prank culture in his department, which included office modifications such as replacing a desk chair with a toilet, turning all furniture upside down, and replacing all furniture with a gerbil and its food cage.
*In 1975, students replaced the frieze honoring Frédéric Chopin on Bridges Auditorium with one honoring Frank Zappa in advance of a concert he performed there.
*In 1978, students suspended a sailboat from the ceiling of Frary Dining Hall.
*In the 1990s, students covered up the door to the mathematics faculty offices to make it look seamlessly like a wall.

Pomona students have also observed or participated in many notable pranks at nearby Harvey Mudd College. Harvey Mudd is well known for its active prank culture, including stunts such as the 1986 heist of Caltech's cannon. Some Pomona pranks have targeted neighboring Claremont McKenna College, the college's main athletic and ideological rival.

Ski-Beach Day

Pomona College takes advantage of its location near the San Gabriel Mountains and within driving distance of the Pacific Ocean to host an annual "Ski-Beach Day" each spring. The tradition dates back to November 1891, when the college established an annual picnic in the mountains. The outings began to focus on winter activities in the 1920s, and switched to a beach trip during a period of low snowfall in the 1940s, before later combining the two. In its current form, students board a bus in the morning and are driven to a local ski resort where they ski or snowboard. After lunch, they are bused down to an Orange County or Los Angeles County beach for the rest of the day.

Sponsor groups

All incoming students are placed into a sponsor group, with 10–20 peers and two or three upperclass "sponsors", who are tasked with easing the transition to college life but not enforcing rules (a duty given to resident advisors).Sponsor Groups
" Retrieved August 15, 2013. The program dates back to 1927 for women, and was expanded in 1950 to include men.

Sponsor groups vary in their level of social cohesion, with some becoming friend groups. They often share activities such as fountaining, a tradition in which sponsor groups carry someone to a campus fountain on their birthday and throw them in. Members of one's sponsor group are referred to as "spiblings".

Through the gates

Walker Wall

In 1956, Pomona constructed a curved , cinder block wall along a portion of the northern edge of its campus as a flood barrier. In the early 1970s, students began painting messages on the wall, and Pomona recognized it as a free speech wall in 1975 after the message "Free Angela" was painted on it, referring to the imprisonment of Angela Davis. Over the years, provocative postings on the wall have spawned a number of controversies. In recent years, sponsor groups have painted the wall during orientation, and since 2009 the Queer Resource Center has painted the entire wall annually for Gaypril.

Defunct traditions

College songs

A number of songs written by Pomona students and faculty have been associated with the college.

The college's alma mater, "Hail, Pomona, Hail", was written by student Richard Loucks in 1910. In 2008, it was discovered that it may have been originally written to be sung as the ensemble finale to a student-produced blackface minstrel show performed on campus. A commission recommended that it be replaced, but many alumni argued against its retirement, noting that the lyrics themselves are not objectionable. Additionally, research from Rosemary Choate (class of 1963) concluded from primary materials that Loucks likely did not actually write the song for the show and was misremembering when he recalled having done so half a century later. Ultimately, president David Oxtoby decided to retain the song but to stop singing it at convocation and commencement. Since then, it has largely disappeared from living memory among current students.

Another college song, "Torchbearers", was written in 1896 by Francis Fulkerson (class of 1896) and professor Arthur Bissell, inspired by a Cahuilla

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases