Freshman Indoctrination

Jacob Bishop, Jacob Graden, Jacob Ehmer, and Sam Mallott

Our project focuses on the history and changes to freshman indoctrination throughout the years. Our topics of focus throughout this history are freshman indoctrination generally, freshman pots, class fights, homecoming, and chapel sing. This is not a complete list, but rather, a list of what we believe to be the most important issues the college has faced throughout its history of freshman indoctrination. As we have seen a national trend of students’ say in the shared governance decrease throughout the years, so too we have seen the administration take authority away from students when it comes to Wabash traditions concerning freshman indoctrination to keep these traditions alive.

Freshman indoctrination began as a way for upperclassmen to introduce freshmen at Wabash to the traditions of the college and integrate them into the set of beliefs that the college carries. Starting as far back as 1920, the Senior Council (a senior-led student governing body at the college) is in full control of freshman indoctrination and making sure freshmen follow the rules set by this same council for the freshmen. One of these rules was the freshman tip rule, where freshmen were required to tip their pots (which they had to always wear) to all Sphinx Club members, seniors, lettermen, and faculty. If they broke this rule, punishment was sure to follow, including having to wear green underwear around campus. This became problematic as freshmen began to complain to administration and even protest, which led to freshmen indoctrination and the Senior Council being ended in 1966. Class fights were another tradition we see get put to a halt by the faculty after a student got hurt participating. During this event, freshman and sophomores would battle to get to the top of a greased-up telephone pole, because at the top was one of the “rhynie” pots. If a freshman was able to reach the top and retrieve this pot, they would not have to follow the freshman indoctrination rules.

Two other traditions that lived on even after the end of freshman indoctrination were homecoming events and the infamous Chapel Sing. While Chapel Sing takes place as one of the homecoming events, its history is rich enough for it to stand alone in our analysis. Other homecoming traditions worth analyzing are the freshman bonfire and the homecoming queens. During the freshman bonfire, the new students were required to wear pajamas and construct these huge bonfires for the entire student-body to enjoy. However, the bonfires had to be ended by administration as students would run around town looking to steal wood for the fire, and there were also instances of students breaking into the city hall building in their pajamas. Homecoming queens had to be altered by administration for that tradition to remain, changing from high skirts to ball gowns, and having them go around asking for donations to charity. Lastly, Chapel Sing has evolved many times, from the “W” haircuts, to the “W” on the shirt as a punishment, to current day, with the students who succeed receiving the “W” on their shirt. Other minor changes have occurred in Chapel Sing, headed by the administration for safety reasons. Another big change was Chapel Sing going from involuntary to voluntary.

All these changes go to show that student-say in these matters has diminished substantially, and administration has altered these traditions, against the students’ wishes, for them to survive at Wabash.

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Rules for Rynies

This picture is a list of rules that the Freshman, then called “rhynies,” had to follow. Some of these rules were like rules of pledgeship in a sense that they could do and wear or not wear only certain things. If a “rhynie” were to break a rule, they would be punished. The punishment was a “W” haircut which stood out like a sore thumb. By breaking a rule, it left the freshmen feeling very embarrassed so getting in trouble was something nobody wanted. Another punishment would be that the freshman violator would have to wear green underwear for a week or two, and these freshmen were often set up for failure with some rules that set them up for failure.

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The 'W' Haircut

This is a picture of the actual shaving of the “W” haircut. This was used as punishment during the 1960s. In 1966, there was a push by the Senior Council to give more freshmen the “W” haircut. It was later abolished in 1968. This was not the first attempt to have this tradition abolished; there had been multiple attempts to do away with this tradition previously, but those were not successful until ‘68. This was not only a punishment for not knowing the song but was also a punishment all freshmen faced if they did not conform to the rules that they were expected to follow at the time.

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Chapel Sing Saltine

This picture is of Chapel Sing sometime in the 1980’s. We can see in the picture that one of the members of the sphinx club is putting a cracker into one of the participants' mouths. Not only would the cracker dry out the mouth of the participant making it more difficult for them to sing the song, but the cracker was also likely covered in hot sauce as this was a very popular tactic to mess up the freshman at the time. All of this would have been in addition to the members trying to mess the freshman up in the ways that we see today.

The Greasy Pole

This video is of the “greasy pole” that used to be a tradition on campus. This tradition was big back in the 1960s but was later abolished due to students getting hurt while taking part in the tradition. It was essentially the freshmen class versus the sophomore class to race to the top of a pole. This pole, however, was covered in grease, as the name suggests, and was slightly slanted to make it more difficult to get up. If the freshmen won, they no longer had to follow the rules that the senior council enforced on them. This tradition came after the class fights were outlawed which also pitted the freshman and sophomore classes against each other.

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Homecoming Bonfire

The freshman bonfire would mark the end of rhyneship. They would travel around town collecting anything that would burn to build the fire. The pile would sometimes include railroad ties, old outhouses, wood boxes, and even telephone poles. Once the bonfire starts the freshmen would walk around the fire and throw in their pots. This marked the end of all freshmen indoctrination and acceptance into the brotherhood. Stolen objects from around town made up most, if not all the wood for the bonfire. This tradition ended because of the possible legal issues the college and the students could have faced including theft and trespassing.

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Town Hall Pep Rally

After the bonfire, freshmen would go to the theater in Crawfordville. They would jump up on stage and begin to yell and scream until being kicked out. The freshmen would then travel up the road to City Hall, where they would have an impromptu pep session. This would signify the end of rhyneship for the freshmen class and they would have their first experience as full Wabash men. The bonfire ended with changing of times. Students could no longer run around town stealing object to burn and would no longer be allowed to trespass and ruin the days of some Crawfordsville citizens.

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Reading Rhynies

This picture is a group of freshmen, or at the time, “rhynies” who were looking at the rules that the Senior Council set before them. These were rules like pledgeship, however, it applied to all “rhynies”, or freshmen. Some of these rules included having to wear a pot, or green hat a tradition that phi delt keeps still today, at all times which they had to tip for a number of different “higher ranking” members of the community; they were also barred from sitting below the third row at an athletic event. One of the later additions to the Freshman Rules was them not being able to step on the seal in the library.