Written by Thomas Hendrickson
Years ago, nearly a century now, the University of Illinois campus was rife with traditions that undergraduate classes were supposed to observe. Many of these traditions were written down for incoming freshmen in student handbooks published by the YMCA. These were traditions that involved the Senior Bench, the Gettysburg Tablet, a no-smoking custom, and many more sensible observances. Yet these traditions fell by the wayside due to their inherent practicality.
The Senior Bench tradition dictated that the Senior Bench donated by the Class of 1900 could only be used by the senior class, and this was written in the student handbooks until the late 1920s. However, the tradition did not last long because students began to simply ignore the rule. Freshmen even got into the habit of decorating the bench with their class numerals as soon as the year started.[1] Continue reading “Campus Traditions: the Failure of the Practical”