New students arriving to the Syracuse University campus are experiencing a lot of firsts. Settling into a strange place, leaving pets behind and getting used to that lingering smell in the dorm bathrooms are just a few of them.

Meanwhile, older students are preparing to welcome the freshmen. There are orientation leaders in orange polos, goon squad members pushing giant grey carts and resident advisers smiling while pinning cute and informative decorations to a bulletin board.

These events happen every year, and while some traditions last the test of time, others change or fade away completely. Here are just some of the ordeals freshmen have had to survive in the past and some that still live on.

Goon Squad

Courtesy of SU Archives

They greet your parents with a large grin, they wheel an impossibly large cart of your stuff upstairs, they remind you that, “no, you may not keep your dog in your dorm.”

Today, the Goon Squad acts as an official welcome crew, helping freshmen move into their new home. But in the past they had many more responsibilities, according to the SU Archives.

Goons would leads cheers at football games and put on an annual Goon Show in addition to acting as the move-in crew, all while wearing large straw hats and Jiminy Cricket buttons.

Although the group was originally limited to sophomores, it now also welcomes the help of juniors and seniors.

One other responsibility of the Goons of the past was to ensure all freshmen sported their beanies. If a freshman was spotted without one, they were subject to hazing and public humiliation.

The Goon Squad of today, fortunately, will not shout at the incoming students or throw anything their way other than a smile and some advice.

Freshman beanies

Courtesy of SU Archives

Shouts of “tip it frosh,” echoed across the SU campus. Beginning in 1893, freshmen were made to wear beanies during their first semester, as per the student handbook.

The soft orange hats made first year students stand out while walking through campus, possibly one of the only positive attributes of the tradition.

Freshmen were required to tip their hats to older students, among other tasks and requirements, according to the SU Archives. The hat implicated a requirement to hold doors for their “lofty peers, the upper classes.”

Use of the beanie was strictly enforced. Members of the Goon Squad made sure that no freshman was seen without their beanie. Failure to sport the hat lead to public humiliation at the Penn State pep rally.

In 1964, freshmen began burning their beanies at the end of the year. Within a decade, the era of the beanie was over, according to the archives.

Rush

Courtesy of SU Archives

Today, the word “rush” evokes scenes of sorority girls and frat boys milling around campus in huge flocks, discussing bids and Greek letters in pretty much every combination. In the early 1900s, however, it meant something a lot different.

“Salting,” a tradition that originated at Genesee College, describes when sophomores would sprinkle salt onto freshmen benches in the chapel. The idea was “to take the freshness out of the first year men,” according to the SU archives.

The tradition quickly evolved upon its arrival on the SU campus, with sophomores throwing the salt at freshmen and rubbing it into their hair.

The salt rush led to the emergence of a number of other rushes, including cane, flour, orange and snow.

The salt rush was cancelled in 1916 and was officially placed on hold during World War I. In 1941, the rivalry between the sophomores and freshmen led to injury during the rush and the tradition died out.

Family Weekend

This tradition was started by students and has grown into an annual event attended by over 5,000 people. The first organized event was held in 1953 by the SU Parents Office during Chancellor William Tolley’s reign.

A number of events have peppered Family Weekend through the years, including breakfast with the chancellor, football games and opportunity for parents to attend classes, according to a 2011 Daily Orange article.

In a 2014 Daily Orange article, Colleen Bench, the associate vice president for student engagement, said there are a number of criteria for selecting the dates for family weekend: falling on a weekend with a home football game, not conflicting with large events in the city of Syracuse, not conflicting with any religious holidays and being scheduled around other major campus events like Orange Central.

This year’s festivities will be held during the weekend of Oct. 28 to 31, not a football weekend. A variety of open houses and tours will be available to help families learn more about the SU community their student lives in.

On the Saturday morning, each college will hold a breakfast. Other functions include home games for several Orange athletic squads and concerts by some of the musical groups on campus.

Home to the Dome

Frankie Prijatel | Senior Staff Photographer

Hundreds of freshmen stream into the Dome, grabbing t-shirts and instantly pulling them on before piling into the bleachers. Each shirt screams “Otto’s Army,” with the class year scrawled across the back.

Otto the Orange zooms onto the field on the back of a four wheeler, wielding a megaphone.

Home to the Dome is an orientation weekend event where freshmen learn sports chants and traditions. The loudest dorm is rewarded with a pizza party.

This event is not to be missed, as it is the opportunity to get a class shirt and make some new friends.

During the event, the class photo will be taken with every incoming freshman helping to form the shape of their class year on the Dome turf.

 

Published on August 23, 2016 at 8:10 pm

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu