A CULTURAL AUDIT OF MIT: as Derived from the Properties of Culture Presented to Students During Graduate Orientation

By Mikael Powell (© Mikael Powell 2012)

Political, social and cultural aspects of the environment – the personal truths experienced by each individual about the physical environment, are not voiced within conventional post-occupancy evaluations. This concern is especially cogent when one considers the evaluation of a subculture within the purview of a university and administration. As a result, a revised assessment document must be developed to evaluate the built environment as it influenced by the relationship between college culture and learning. While campus culture or “institutional culture”, as it is sometimes termed (Tierney, 1988), can be characterized in many ways, for this document it is defined as:
The collective, mutually shaping patterns of norms, values, practices, beliefs and assumptions that guide the behavior of individuals and groups in an institute of higher education and provide a framework of reference within which to interpret the meanings of event and actions on and off campus. (Kuh & Whitt, 1988, 13)
Analyzing a college through the lens of a cultural perspective provides a way to examine more fully the way of life of the students, faculty and administration and how the institution functions as a whole (Kuh & Whitt, 1988). Although there are various definitions of cultural properties, nonetheless, one can still observe the many manifestations of culture to provide insight into its impact and relevance within the web of institutional actions. Sociologists Kuh and Whitt (1988) cite post-secondary orientation events as key ceremonies and rituals that maintain the cultural properties of university subcultures.
In their four-year longitudinal study of college students, Hodkinson & Bloomer (2000) found that the overall campus culture plays a significant role in student learning. They noted:
Our interviewees consistently reported the positive contribution that being at college had made to their personal intellectual development. However it was seldom possible to attribute such successes to specific strategies or techniques employed within the college, or even to explicit institutional policies. They appeared to have no obvious connection with particular teaching styles, such as whole-class teaching, group work, student centered learning or experiential learning. Rather, they were often reported and best understood as the effect of a whole college culture. (196)
Therefore, campus culture plays an important role in the educational development of students. First I examine graduate orientation and the general campus environment as a vehicle to conduct a sub-cultural audit of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to determine relevant cultural properties both imparted to and acknowledged by students. I interpret cultural properties of the university through my analysis of interviews, online surveys of staff and participants, literature, observation, video and campus tours. I triangulate my inquiries by interviewing (asking questions), then online surveying (soliciting responses from various players about same questions), then literature review (looking for evidence of validation or refute in orientation documents). Secondly, I evaluate the physical built spaces predominated by graduate students to explore how the environments relate in form, layout, accoutrements and human comfort to the significant cultural properties proclaimed.

Examination of MIT Graduate Orientation
Within a period of six weeks in the fall of 2011, I interviewed one graduate student co-chair of Graduate Orientation in person and the other by telephone. I created a qualitative on-line survey and offered it to the orientation co-chairs and a departmental secretary for distribution to administration, staff and students. There were seven respondents to the survey, with included three orientation staff members and four students who recently attended graduate orientation. I reviewed all the graduate orientation literature and PowerPoint presentations, toured the campus, observing graduate spaces, and collected and analyzed one campus tour video and one graduate orientation welcoming speech. I also examined the general campus tour information and an internet video of a campus tour.
The Massachusetts Institutive of Technology is primarily a school of science located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in Boston in 1861, MIT has grown to a population of 10,566 students in the 2011- 2012 school year, with approximately forty percent undergraduates and nearly sixty percent graduate students (grad students first outnumbered undergrads in 1980). Forty-five percent of undergraduates are female, but only thirty-one percent of graduates are female. Ten percent of undergraduate students are international, while thirty-eight percent of graduates are from outside of the United States. Ninety percent of undergraduates live in student housing (it is normally required) compared to thirty-six percent of graduates housed on campus.
The Graduate Student Council organizes graduate orientation with about 25 student volunteers. This student-led series of events has grown from a one day six-event happening for 300 – 400 new students in 1975, to arguably the largest graduate orientation in the United States offering sixty events over a three-week duration with over 1000 students attending (MIT, 2011b)(German, 2011). Although it is produced by students, the university administration provides an office for the Graduate Student Organization, a paid administrator who does bookings, and a Fellow who is dedicated to the event. In addition, all the administrative university committee chairs cooperate with graduate orientation events. Additional funding comes from external sources like the COOP, and other retail businesses.
MIT’s Graduate orientation planning begins the previous year. In April and May they hold elections to select the committee chair, have initial meetings to determine the costs associated with each event and to develop a budget. Also, in May they book the Harbor Cruise event, recruit an orientation Fellow with support from the university administration and form a publicity team to develop event imagery. In June, efforts to create “the Graduate” orientation publication are initiated, including soliciting funding involvement from organizations and companies outside of MIT. The orientation planners also begin recruiting volunteers, develop a preliminary calendar, and secure speakers for the welcoming event. In July, they finalize the schedule and their publicity efforts and formulate the cost rationale for ticket pricing. In addition, they investigate catering companies, distribute seed money for aligned events in the dormitories and formally invite the Deans to the welcoming events. August is the month that they host their largest campaign to solicit student help for events. T-shirts and other supplies are ordered this month, and all reservations are confirmed, all waivers from injury liability are developed and lastly, coordination of all audiovisual technology is performed. The first publicity coordination meetings occur in August and welcome emails are sent out to all students. Most importantly, the staff assesses possible event conditions and contingency plans are formulated. Graduate Orientation occurs in September, and immediately afterwards, they book hotel rooms and schedule participation for the university President for the following year (German, 2011).
The theme for the 2011 Graduate Student Orientation was “Play, Live, Work”. Events were divided into three categories: “Know the Institute”, which highlighted two events- GS101 (general and support information) and GS102 (computer technology information), “Know the People” which consisted of dances, barbecues, and functions by social organizations and, “Know the City”, which included city touring events (Graduate Student Council, 2011a).
Graduate orientation staff-members solicited the involvement of many organizations on campus in the hopes that new students may find a shared interest (Zhang, 2011). One of the graduate student orientation leaders said that “There are many opportunities for graduate students to get involved outside of class through extra-curricular activities and the MIT experience is what you make of it!”(German, 2011). I identified the properties of the subculture at the university as expressed through the following “frequently mentioned cultural forms” (Kuh & Whitt, 1988, p. 17): traditions, rituals, symbols, norms, beliefs, legends, artifacts, myths, and sagas. All these forms together “describe many of the subtle aspects of experience subsumed under the concept of culture as a complex whole...” (Kuh & Whitt, 1988, p. 13). The information, compiled through interviews with the graduate student co-chairs, online surveys, literature analyses of graduate orientation material, the Graduate Student Orientation support group presentations and a video analysis of a graduate orientation welcoming speech, represent that which the graduate organization and university administration want new students to know.
Traditions
Campus traditions are expressed in the graduate orientation publication, which perpetuates the traditional view of the school environment in a maxim coined by former university President, Jerome Weisner that “Getting an Education from MIT is like taking a drink from a Fire Hose'' (Graduate Student Council, 2011a, p. 14). The actual fire hose is in the basement of building 26.
Symbols
Kuh & Whitt (1988) describe a cultural symbol as “Any object, act, event quality, or relation that serves as a vehicle for conveying meaning, usually by representing another thing” (p. 19). The co-chairs of graduate orientation say that the school mascot, the beaver, is used on all their publications. The welcoming pamphlet says of the mascot, “Tim the beaver has been the mascot of MIT since at least 1914” (Graduate Student Council, 2011a, p. 8). Another symbol used is a stylized elevation view of the “Great Dome” on building 10. It is utilized for the Graduate Student Organization logo as well as other support groups’ graphics. Indeed, the orientation organizers advertise “Dance under the Dome” as a social mixer for new graduate students during “Know the People” events (Graduate Student Council, 2011a, p. 7).
Norms
Normative behavior of graduate students in the MIT culture is expressed by the graduate student co-chairs in the following comments: “MIT is known as a savvy institute, therefore the graduate student organization had to create a quality website (German, 2011); “MIT students are notorious for being in lab all the time. The workload is horrendous, often 24 hours a day, seven days a week” (Zhang, 2011).
Graduate orientation 2011 literature proclaims that “MIT graduate students are known internationally due to their innovative research and remarkable work ethic. Yet many people are not aware that graduate students can play just as hard as they can work” (Graduate Student Council, 2011a, p. 8); “As an incoming graduate student you are uniquely prepared and equally ready to embark on a rewarding journey in the intense laboratory of academic rigor, technical excellence, and world-class research” (Graduate Student Council, 2011a, p. 23).
Beliefs
The graduate orientation organizers were adamant in their belief in the positive values of diversity, collaboration, community, sustainability, creativity and innovation. The orientation literature indicates this as well. The orientation co-chairs also stated their belief in the MIT maxim of “Mind and Hand”- that first one needs a strong intellectual foundation before one can begin the work, and that graduate school can be a transformative force in a student’s life. Also, an orientation co-chair stated she believed that new students will feel less apprehensive after they mix with their cohorts (German, 2011).
Legends
Cultural legends have not been as ubiquitous as other cultural properties. The graduate student orientation 2011 publication did allude to the 1960’s fraternity stunt to measure the Harvard Bridge using pledge Oliver Smoot as the unit of measurement. It said, “But what do you do when the 364.4 smoots ± 1 ear of the Harvard bridge are just too daunting?” (Graduate Student Council, 2011a, p. 10).
Artifacts
Artifacts can be defined as a meaning “‛stored’ in symbols” (Geertz 1973, p127). While the student co-chairs do distribute orientation, which are donated by a local retailer, another retail item, the graduate class ring, is an important cultural artifact. In cultural jargon, it is called the “Grad Rat” and it is usually purchased in the first year of graduate school (Zhang, 2011). This cultural artifact is wrought with symbolism (See Appendix M for bezel design). The official Balfour Graduate Student ring 2011 brochure says:
It embodies the collective, life-changing experiences and the
unique graduate culture that we encounter at MIT. The Bezel represents the journey the graduate student takes at MIT. Night time littered with coffee & books for the all-nighters we endure. Sunrise symbolizing graduation and bright careers. "Greater than 72" representing the 72 MIT Nobel prizes by MIT community. The "7" & "2" double helix structure & the tiny flames show MIT's growing involvement in biology related & energy-related research. Billboard blocking the path to graduation representing the last set of data before moving on. It outlines the word "MIT" & represents the ups and downs of the graduate experience. The tipped over hourglass under its tail represents the lack of free time and the unknown time to graduation. It also looks like an infinity symbol representing the Infinite Corridor. The Beaver is confidently holding its degree, sitting on a bed of branches forming the famous letters "IHTFP': The letter G represents the registrar's designation for graduate students.”( 36)
Another characteristic about The Grad Rat is the map of the MIT campus inscribed on interior part of the ring. It is a tradition for MIT Graduate students to wear it so that the beaver side shows on top, and after they graduate they turn it so that the degree side is on top (Zhang, 2011).
Myths
A myth is an unsupported belief (Kuh & Whitt, 1988). The graduate student co-chairs for Graduate Student Orientation state that many new graduate students think that “Peers always have the answer” and receive a lot of advice from fellow students that isn’t always right (German & Zhang, 2011). One co-chair said that she believed that it was commonly understood that MIT students are “very smart” (German, 2011). It is important to note, however that a MIT Global Education & Career Development officer presented statistics in their graduate orientation presentation that, when considering the percentage of the average graduate student rating their abilities in the top 10% nationwide, as compared to the average MIT student entering graduate school, MIT students rated their ability lower in almost every category (MIT, 2011b).
Sagas
Keeping within the definition of a saga as “an historic narrative of leaders, illustrated as heroes” (Kuh & Whitt, 1988, p.19), they are evidenced in graduate orientation events and its materials in two ways. Firstly, in a video analysis of a previous graduate orientation, the student leader of the group welcomed new students by saying:
My fellow students, I bid you welcome from the hallowed halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In these halls once walked some of the greatest innovators, leaders and thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and agents of political and social change of our times. This is a place where there are as many revolutionary ideas as there are people who think them. (Barunio, 2004).
The online survey solicited anonymous responses from graduate orientation staff and new graduate students who attended the event (See Appendix L). When orientation staff was asked “What does the orientation organization want students to know (by the time that orientation is complete) about important traditions, rituals, symbols?” the responses were as follows: “The orientation I assisted is a subsection and not for the larger university. thus we did not include MIT identity conveyances”; “As staff our main concern is to help the students navigate the campus and computer networks, and to be able to register, find housing and jobs. We don't concern ourselves or the students with clothing or gestures.”
When orientation staff was asked “What does the orientation organization want students to know (by the time that orientation is complete) about important norms, beliefs and legends?” they responded: “Hard work? Sometimes I note The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility.”
When orientation staff was asked “What does the orientation organization want students to know (by the time that orientation is complete) about important artifacts, myths and sagas?” they responded, “We gave out a Tim the Beaver doll as a prize and some other insignia items.”
When orientation staff was asked whether they felt that these properties of culture are important for graduate orientation events, they responded that “they were not important”.
Alternately, when new graduate students were asked, “What did you learn (by the time that orientation is complete) about important traditions, rituals, symbols ?”, they responded, “ I learned to recognize some, but by no means all, of these things during orientation mostly from direct knowledge-sharing by staff and in some cases by induction or by encountering something within the physical space of the university (such as walking by a group of undergraduates preparing for a land yacht race as part of the effort to recruit new residents; it was a funny scene so I asked them what they were up to.)”
When new graduate students were asked, “What did you learn (by the time that orientation is complete) about important norms, beliefs, legends?” they responded, “I learned that most faculty and administrators stereotype MIT graduate students as science researchers working in a lab and plagued by p-sets. The concerns and activities of art, architecture and Media Lab students didn't come up at all in the general orientation.”; “Grad rat rings and mascot the beaver”; “Hacking”.
When new graduate students were asked, “What did you learn (by the time that orientation is complete) about important artifacts, myths and sagas?” they responded, “Just Tim, the beaver, who was offered as a prize for a correct answer to an MIT trivia question. I've gleaned sagas mostly from documentary evidence on campus (various exhibitions about hacking, for example).”
When new graduate students were asked whether they felt that these properties of culture are important for graduate orientation events, they responded that “they were somewhat important”.

The Campus Environment


New graduate students are indoctrinated into the greater MIT culture through their experiences on campus, both directed and in personal exploration. This information was compiled from a video analysis of a campus tour, literature examination of the university produced Self-Guided Walking Tour of the MIT Campus and my photographic review of campus.
Traditions
Cultural traditions are evident while walking the campus. One can note that buildings are numbered and many are contiguous. This tradition distinguishes MIT from other universities of its time, and previous, in America. Jarzombek (2004) wrote of the original design of MIT in the early 1900’s saying that on of the design collaborators of MIT rejected:
The "United States model of putting departments into separate buildings" in which the professor in charge of a department "reigns undisturbed, largely in a little kingdom of his own" whereas the students run "much risk of colds in our northern climate, in passing from one lecture to another…". In Europe, he argued, one finds departments "housed in a single connected group closely resembling the arrangement of the best modern factories." [He created a] plan for a single massive building oriented toward efficiency of space. (46)
Rituals
Young (1999) describes rituals as “behavioral patterns that are repeatable, have purpose, and have acquired a sense of rightness among the people who participate in them” (p.11). An analysis of the campus tour video highlights a student docent recounting the rivalry between MIT and another university punctuated by the theft of a 130 year-old, 1.7 ton cannon (Triusa, 2009). Likewise, the published self-guided tour recalls the bi-annual event of gathering to watch the sun shine down a 1/6 mile long hallway called “the Infinite Corridor” in building 7A (MIT, 2011a, p.2).
Symbols
An important cultural symbol is described in the self-guided walking tour publication which states “Seen from the courtyard, the Great dome, patterned after Rome’s Pantheon, provides the Institute’s architectural focus...” (MIT, 2011a, p. 1).
Norms
A video analysis of a student-led campus tour shows the guide outlining student norms by saying, “MIT has a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research. Basically …you will have chemists, physicists, biomedical engineers, chemical engineers, all sorts of different stuff, all working towards finding a cure for cancer” (Triusa, 2009). Indeed, the self-guided tour literature remarks that of the almost 70 laboratories on campus, nearly all consists of undergraduates, graduates and professors in collaboration. The self- tour guide also states that three-quarters of all students are involved in school sports and over 500 students are in organized musical groups (MIT, 2011a, p.2).
Beliefs
My tour of campus confirms that MIT believes in the values of diversity and community because the corridors in most buildings were replete with organizational posters and event announcement. The wall adjacent to the admissions office had a large life-size painted mural of diverse ethnic and cultural communities of people. Both the belief in the transformative qualities of the institution, and the value of diversity and collaboration are evidenced in the words of the student tour guide:
This place will change your life …If you have an idea for change, you will find support here to see it through…the Media Lab works on ‘smart technologies, sort of future of the world type stuff [there is] an open atmosphere to you have all kinds of discussions between groups, disciplines. That’s the idea. (Triusa, 2009)
Sagas
Illustrations of cultural sagas are highlighted in the self-guided walking tour informational sheet (See Appendix N). It includes a review of Everett Morss hall, the campus dining room and location of the Graduate Student Organization offices. The main room has seven large life- sized painted wall murals from the last century, stylized with pertinent individuals and ideals of MIT. The tour literature states “The central panel represents the Alma Mater with the world at her feet; on her left, knowledge through experiment, one of the founding principles of M.I.T.” (MIT, 2011a, p.2).

Summation
Research has shown that campus culture is an important part of the educational
experience at college (Hodkinson & Bloomer, 2000), so it is fitting that I examine the cultural properties of the university, employing an examination of a subculture as a
way to inform about university environment. Graduate orientation serves as likely vehicle to conduct a sub-cultural audit of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because it is a key program in which in-coming students are socialized into their new culture. The graduate orientation program acclimates students to community on a personal, university and city level. A review of the graduate orientation events shows that it is rich with cultural properties (See Table 4.). Van Maanen (1987), a sociologist and researcher, asked an MIT student to define the institutional culture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The student replied “It's everything we aren't tested on in the classroom” (p. 5). Keeping this in mind, and using the cultural properties as guideposts, I now evaluate the spaces predominated by graduate students to access how they respond to the cultural ambiance of MIT, within the framework of building form, layout, accoutrements and human comfort.

Evaluation of Graduate Resident Housing and the Graduate Student Lounge


-end

References (this portion)
Balfour (2011). Massachusetts Institute of Technology Graduate Student Ring. Austin, oooooooTX: Commemorative Brands, Inc.

Barunio (Producer). (2004) MIT welcome address to new grad students-2004 [video]. oooooooRetrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D808sgyW9T4

German, A. (2011, November 11). M. Powell. Culture audit interview., Boston, MA.

Graduate Student Council (2011a). The Graduate Orientation 2011. Cambridge, MA: oooooooMIT Press.

Graduate Student Council (2011b). The official MIT graduate ring gradrat home. MIT 0000000website. Retrieved December 5, 2011 from ooooooohttp://web.mit.edu/gsc/www/programs/ring/index.shtml

Kuh, G.D., & Whitt, E.J. (1988). The invisible tapestry: Culture in American colleges
and universities. ASHEERIC Higher Education Report, Vol. 17, No. 1.
Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Higher Education.

MIT (2011a). Self-guided walking tour of the MIT campus. Cambridge, MA: MIT

MIT (2011b, December 15). Graduate Student Development & Career Launch at MIT
Retrieved from http://gsc.scripts.mit.edu/wptest/wp- content/uploads/gradschool101_careers.pdf

Triusa (Producer). (2009) MIT campus tour [video]. Retrieved from oooooohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqSeqeJCccU&feature=related

Young, R. (1999). Reexamining our rituals. About Campus, Sept.-Oct.,pp. 10-16.

Van Maanen, J. (1987). "Managing education better: Some thoughts on the management ooooooof student cultures in American colleges and universities. Paper presented at a oooooomeeting of the Association for Institutional Research, May, Kansas City, ooooooMissouri.

Zhang, R. (2011, November 15). Interview by M.Powell. Culture audit interview.,
Boston, MA

I NOW FEEL...

It was fascinating to read in Lee S. Schulman’s (1988) prologue on disciplined inquiry about the controversy over experimental versus correlation, especially in regard to the interests of each kind of researcher. He says that correlationalists “see nature as presenting itself for inspection and the role of the scientist as that of identifying which of the variations that nature presents are associated with other processes or outcomes”(pg. 15). Alternately, experimentalists are interested only in “the variations they themselves create” (pg. 15). This basic premise is often ignored when generalizing the research findings. As an architect, I am extremely skeptical when a researcher tells me that I need to design smooth, blue, cocoonish spaces because (Augustin 2009) says a comfortable space for an individual is one that has the qualities of a refuge (from caveman days), or that using the color blue in my designs is most preferred by individuals because “living on the savanna, blue meant good things. Fresh water when seen from a distance is blue. A sky during pleasant weather is blue” (pg.12) and Bar and Neta (2007) found that the shape of objects, from everyday items like furniture to novel patterns, could cause a fear reaction in individuals. Contoured items were preferred while sharp items increased amygdala activation in the brain, which indicates fear processing.
These analogies are much in line with Shulman’s example “foot size is correlated and vocabulary are correlated in the general population, but that does not mean that large feet cause larger word knowledge (or vice versa)” (pg. 15). It is, therefore, extremely important to examine the original research, acknowledging the method employed, studying the underlying purpose and questions posed by the researcher and imagining other ways to answer that same question.
Also, I was highly inspired by Shulman’s discussion of a “Community of Scholars and Scholarship as Community Property” (pg. 26).
I now feel that this PhD I am earning is less of a diploma that I have achieved something and more of a membership card into a fraternity [sorry] thousands of years old with our own traditions and regalia and responsibility to further the quest for knowledge.
As this writer cited Ebbinghaus (originally1883) and the works of Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), my work can live on and be a foundation for great contributions in the future.

Augustin, S. (2009) Place Advantage: Applied psychology for interior architecture. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Bar, M. and Neta, M. (2007) Visual elements of subjective preference modulate amygdala activation, Neuropsychologia, 45 pgs. 2191–2200
Shulman, “Disciplined Inquiry” (p. 3-69 [including Tyack piece] in Jaeger)
Jaeger, Richard M. (Ed.). (1997). Complementary methods for research in education, second edition. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Complementary methods for research in education / edited by Richard M. Jaeger ; [contributors, Tom Barone ... et al.]. 1997 LB1028 .C577 1997 available, Lesley-Sherrill Library Main Stacks
(COPYRIGHT © 2011 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)

Campus Cultural Analysis -Kenyon College

Peirce Hall Main dining room in the 1960’s when Kluge attended. Note the long row-tables. Peirce Hall Main dining room, recently renovated. Pains-taking efforts were taken to restore the room to the original look. Tables now are in groupings of 6 – 8 students.

Analysis of the Way in which Culture is Portrayed on Campus in Alma Mater: A College Homecoming by P.F. Kluge(COPYRIGHT © 2011 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)

Alma Mater: A college homecoming is nonfiction ethnography by P. F Kluge that details the experiences of a man, who after graduating from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, returns and spends one year as a professor of English. The book chronicles the culture of the college. This paper analyzes the book with deference to those elements that describe the college culture. Analyzing a college with a cultural perspective provides a way to examine more fully the way of life of the students, faculty and administration and how the institution functions as a whole (Kuh & Whitt, 1988). Although there are various definitions of culture, one can observe the manifestations of culture to provide insight into its properties. First, I will give a brief summary of the book and secondly, I review forms of culture at the college as expressed through ceremony, ritual, myth, saga, folktale, symbol, language, gesture, physical setting and artifact which relate to the levels of culture at the college in the experiences that Kluge wrote about in the book.
In his book, P. F. Kluge, a professor of English and alumnus at Kenyon College, chronicles a year at the college as a teacher in the early 1990’s while recounting his own experience there as a student in the 1960’s. He provides background and early history of the founding of the college within the framework of two full semesters at the institution – from orientation to commencement. He describes the college’s relationship with the surrounding town, one in which isolation was valued from the very founding. He also includes his perspective of the scholastic environment from a student’s point of view (including a personal relationship with a terminally ill student), a faculty member’s life in the student all-male dormitory, an outsider’s view of the faculty, relations with the alumni and the admissions process, all with unusually untethered access.
When several rites are connected in an event, it is known as a ceremony. Such is the description for Philander’s Phling, a tradition funded by a school trustee that seeks to alleviate the doldrums of the long February scholastic schedule. This one-night fantasy gives students the opportunity to dress up in fine clothes and be transported by limousine to a casino parlor created in one of the college buildings. The administration and faculty play the part of dealers and students are given faux money to gamble. As all rites have a shared language, gaming lingo becomes parlance that shapes this experience.
Kuh & Whitt (1988), describe a ritual as “a standardized detailed set of techniques and behaviors that manage anxieties but seldom produce intended technical consequences” (p.18). Some of the college’s policies and habitual actions toward prohibiting the consumption of alcohol on campus and at campus-sponsored events can be described as actions meant to convey temperance ideals to students, while acknowledging the lack of will and resources to enforce the value. The college administration advises that they do not have personnel to police such activities in the dormitory and they expect that students will attend Philander’s Phling already intoxicated.
When one considers a cultural myth as an unsupported belief, then the misconception that student nowadays produce more schoolwork than earlier times (supposedly evidenced by their resulting higher grades), certainly qualifies. Kluge (1993) reports “some say that the caliber of student has come up...” (1993, p. 200) in regard to the amount of schoolwork students successfully engage in. However, a fellow professor discovered that he had actually assigned far less readings to his class than his college professor had assigned to him 15 years earlier. Upon consideration, the professor lamented that this may be the norm.
The mural on the Gambier, Ohio Post Office wall depicts the saga of the locating the site for Kenyon college. It shows the historic scene of Philander Chase on horseback gesturing to the awe-inspiring landscape and declaring the campus for the college (See appendix 2). Keeping within the definition of a saga as an historic narrative of leaders, illustrated as heroes (Kuh & Whitt, 1988), this painting idolizes Philander Chase, with campus plans in hand, in his role as founder of Kenyon College.
At graduation, the costumed Phil Jordon, president of Kenyon College, acts out a folktale of the college as he chants “They call me Iron Phil, Wild man of the Hill, I live with Steel Shelia, Bard of the Monongahela, Yo Steel Sheila!...” (Kluge, 1993, p. 241). This fable, although fictitious, exaggerates the countenance and historical character of founder Philander Chase creating a parody often performed in Peirce Hall underneath portraits of previous Kenyan College presidents.
Although letter grades A – F are published in the college catalog and listed to indicate performance from “Excellent to Failing”, in students and faculty culture, they symbolize something more subjective. Kluge reported that it was the college’s desire that 50% of all grades be A’s and B’s. Indeed, students realize the disparity between the published letter grade description and the symbolic meaning of the grade within the Kenyon culture. So, understandably, Kluge reported that a faculty member remarked “grades are coded, and you are sending a message with a C that this [paper] is disastrous”. (Kluge, 1993, p. 97). The professor implied that it would adversely affect student morale.
Also, within the discourse of the Admissions department there is standard language for grades such as “Cs are ‘cats’, Ds are ‘dogs’ Fs are frogs”. (Kluge, 1993, p. 122). The author describes this jargon as seemingly cold, crude and disrespectfully humorous. This parlance may also be seen as a way to distance oneself from the significance that grades play in the admissions process, given the variances in determining and awarding these standard measurements. However, Kluge concludes that this language does not diminish the serious efforts by the admissions committee to review prospective student applicants.
The commencement ceremony has many body gestures that communicate meanings understood in the culture. Indeed, one of the most popular commencement movements is repositioning the tassel on the graduation cap to symbolize leaving the ranks of candidate. Kluge describes how parents and family indicate support by the level of applause “some with rousing ovations, some with meager pit-pats” (1993, p. 248). Kluge also explains the procession of the graduating class past the faculty. Within that formal ceremony student exhibit many emotions, some gesture to the faculty, some nod, others hurriedly shake their hand.
Kuh & Whitt (1988), describe a physical setting as “things that surround people physically and gives them stimulus as they carry out culturally expressive activities”. (p.19). Peirce Hall, built in 1929, is a social setting and the open architecture of the dining room, provided the backdrop for social confrontation during the undergraduate tenure of the P.F. Kluge (See appendix 1a). The large exposed arches provide a virtually column-free space for activities. The structural elements also create a huge volume of space beyond the human scale, which affects the acoustics in the hall, adding depth of tone and resonance to student conversations. The building type also allows for long windows to bring in light and present stained glass illustration. The increased wall space allows for the historic oil paintings on the wall. Thus, this setting is constructed to provide open, social interactions within a gallery of historic portraits and inspirational fenestration. It was noted that the great hall in Peirce was a second-choice location for the Harry Potter films (Kenyon College, 2009). At the time that the author taught at Kenyan College, Peirce Hall still was an environment that supported both segregated seating and confrontation to change the status quo (See appendix 1b).
Petitions were the artifacts that existed as the vehicle for student to express their concerns about their values and opinions in the institution, notably the drive to keep Henry Bod. The institution treated them seriously, considering the student action and maintaining the petition as an effective purveyor of student opinion without vanquishing them as totally impotent. Looking at artifacts as a meaning “‛stored’ in symbols” (Geertz 1973, p127), it can be understood that students viewed the petition process as a way to counter the power of the college administration with their strength as patrons of the college, since much of the operating funds came from tuition. Albeit, their actions were impulsive, as the numbers of student that actually attended the subsequent rally was very small. The college administration’s actions indicated that they valued the petitioning process, at least as a way to document, both in the present and historically, their support of the students, while not changing their announced plans.
These levels of culture provide a framework in which to examine the values held and relationships of entities within the Kenyon College experience as portrayed in Kluge’s book, Alma Mater: A College Homecoming. Ceremonies, like Philander’s Phling serves the administration’s desire to perpetuate a tradition and provide a vehicle for faculty to support students in a respite from their studies. Students have the opportunity to participate in a special way with the college administration and faculty. Events like this have their own language and they support cultural gestures as a means of communication. Rituals indicate the values of all parties concerned and myths can provide an opportunity for reflection and analysis. College sagas and folktales are illustrative of institutional image and values. An examination of symbols and artifacts furthers the understanding of the relationships between college administration, faculty, staff and student. Physical settings are the seemingly tacit backdrop for the college experience. These elements, richly presented in the book enhance our understanding of the culture at Kenyon College.

References:

Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic books.

Kenyon College (2009) The great hall. Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin, 32(1), Fall.

Kluge, P.F. (1995). Alma mater: A college homecoming. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Kuh, G.D., & Whitt, E.J. (1988). The invisible tapestry: Culture in American colleges and universities. ASHE ERIC Higher Education Report, Vol. 17, No. 1. Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Higher Education.

University Culture-Traditions

The Nations’ First Spring Fling: A Tradition at my Alma Mater
(COPYRIGHT © 2011 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)

I attended Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas which is a rural agricultural and research university founded as the first land grant college in America. At the time of my attendance there were about 14,000 students. One of our most enduring and endearing traditions is Spring Fling, a week-long series of events for dorm students, which includes an outdoor cross-campus bed race. This residence hall celebration originated at K-State in the mid 1960’s and now occurs in name and concept at many universities throughout the world (K-State Alumni Association, 2011).
This festival, which started as a way to increase camaraderie between students in the residence halls and to compete with activities of the Greek organizations, continues today in much the same fashion as it was conceived. Mabel Strong, director of the Putnam Hall dormitory since 1962, was a member of the KSU Association of Residence Halls and the Midwest Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls which sponsored the first Spring Fling in 1966 under her direction (Putnam Hall RESPECT Agreement Guide, 2008-2009). Spring Fling is now sponsored by the K-State Association of Residence Halls
On April 15, 1966 the college newspaper, The Collegian, reported:
Wildcat and Kitten to Reign Halls, Initiate Spring Fling
Though spring officially began March 20, K-State's own Spring Fling will begin Monday. That date will mark the beginning of Spring Fling Week, being sponsored by the K-State Association of Residence Halls for independent students. Spring Fling Week, a first here, will give 3,000 dorm residents and other independents a chance to "fling"… Candidates for "Wildcat" and "Wildkitten" will be presented during the hootenanny Monday afternoon…The elected Wildcat and Wildkitten will be announced at a leadership banquet in Kramer Food Center Tuesday. …assistant dean of women will speak on ... Thursday. Friday night, all women's dorms will provide music for dancing and refreshments. Saturday's activities include games, balloon fights, tug of war, a hootenanny and a bed race [that] … will cover more than two miles. The six beds entered will match teams of four boys pushing decorated beds containing four girls each. Awards will be given to the first bed across the finish line and also to the most unique bed. "Spring Fling Week" will end with a dance at Derby Food Center…

The 1972 yearbook, Royal Purple, describes the purpose of the event by saying “Spring Fling events brighten second semester. Water balloons thrown at helpless riders to drench them and the bed they're on as they were raced around the course…It’s a week for students to forget all their problems and just have a good time. It's a time when students can get involved with other students and do things they normally wouldn’t do. And nobody cares what anybody thinks about anybody else because they're all doing the same wild and crazy things. It's a totally relaxed time for meeting new people and “just being yourself.”
It is likely, however, that Spring Fling influences other persons than residence hall students because some of the events invite observers from beyond the dormitory student population. The main artifact of the event and the longest tradition is the bed race which travels through campus, onto the city streets of Manhattan, Kansas through the Aggieville district (an adjacent commercial area of bookstores, night clubs and bars) and concludes by Danforth Chapel. Townspersons line the street to watch as contestant go by. Indeed, in my hometown of Topeka, Kansas (50 miles away) the bed race is annually featured on the local news and in the city newspaper. Kuh & Whitt (1988) would probably describe the bed race and the bed as artifacts, in that the vehicle (a bed with 6” wheels) is fabricated just for this event and the event is emblematic of Spring Fling. Kuh & Whitt (1988) go on to say that after identifying an artifact, it is harder to determine how “the nested patterns of assumptions and beliefs represented by the artifact influence the behavior of individuals and groups over time” (p. 23). If one sees K-State as a repository of farm kids experiencing freedom (and sexual liberation) in an urban environment for the first time, then the experience of coeds abed unabashedly street racing and the associated artifacts are influenced by the zeitgeist of the era- the pendulum of changing sensibilities. Indeed, although Spring Fling has largely been well- received, interest did lag in the 1990’s, then gradually regain its stature as a significant tradition. Regardless, Spring Fling still remains relevant to today’s students.