Lost but not forgotten

Campus traditions that once united students
have been replaced by a new campus culture

By Beata Mostafavi and Lisa Toth

When Mary Hudzikiewicz was a student at the University more than 40 years ago, football and basketball games were a "joke." The University's unranked athletic teams weren't taken seriously by the students.

"College was a lot different in those days," she said. "Campus came together in much different ways."

Instead, the campus community united through traditions that have been forgotten by newer generations. Alumni attribute the loss of these traditions to world events such as Vietnam that changed campus culture.

Hudzikiewicz, a student between 1959 and 1963, still remembers students spending hours making floats out of napkins and chicken wire for the annual Canoe Fete. She can still picture homecoming queens who would ride on the floats down the Millrace and the thousands of people that came to watch.

Freshman and sophomores compete in a tug-of-war battle in the 1920's during early Junior and Parent's Weekend. Photo courtesy of Oregon Daily Emerald

"When people I went to school with get together, we still talk about those times," Hudzikiewicz said.

The traditions reached their peak in the 1950s and '60s, when the Canoe Fete was known as one of the most extravagant University events. A stage and grandstand that seated 10,000 people stretched across the banks while an orchestra played music to accompany the theme-decorated floats. The first float always carried the selected queen and her court, who were taken to the stage to host the evening.

The "All Campus Sing" was another prime event during Parents' Weekend, featuring stars such as Nat "King" Cole, Bill Cosby, Dionne Warwick and Hoagy Carmichael, who performed at concerts in McArthur Court. Hundreds of students who had practiced songs for months would then join in and sing with the entertainers.

Jim Perry, class of 1958 and a Sigma Phi Epsilon alumnus, remembers the Canoe Fete and All Campus Sing as events that not only united families with students, but brought the whole University community together.

"It was a big deal," he said. "It was an opportunity for all students to focus on one thing."

During Junior Weekend in the 1950s, a student is ceremoniously thrown into the fountain near Deady Hall. The "Hello Walk" tradition forced all underclass students to greet seniors or be tossed into the fountain. Photo courtesy of Oregon Daily Emerald and Special Collections

Meg Esch, who attended the University of Oregon from 1981 to 1985, was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and also remembers many of the same traditions.

"When I was there, we had Parent's Weekend in the spring," she said. "It coincided with the end of Greek Week."

Esch said she was part of the canoe float crew on the Millrace her sophomore year, in 1983, where sororities were paired up with fraternities to build a "parade on the water."

The theme that year was cities, Esch said, and her team was assigned Washington D.C. -- so she dressed up as Nancy Reagan, the first lady, to ride the float.

Esch said she also remembered an event during Greek Week called the Bunion Derby. The event was for the Sigma Chi fraternity's national fundraiser, and Esch recalled how she and the other sorority girls had to walk to the various fraternities and pay for their beer to support a charity organization.

"The beer runneth over in those days -- honestly, it was very excessive," Esch said.

Between a Greek Talent Show, which is similar to the current All Greek Sing, the Canoe Fete, Parent's Weekend and Greek Week, Esch said there was a lot of interaction between all the chapters that isn't as evident today.

Esch said the Greek system reached its peak at the University in the 1950s and Ô60s, but during times of war, houses such as Alpha Chi Omega had to close because of a lack of interest. In 1978, Esch said, the Greek system began to become popular again.

Hudzikiewicz, who has retired from her position as assistant dean of student life, also agreed that times of war made it difficult to keep the festivities alive.

Adding last-minute touches to the "Punch and Judy" float in 1961, an Alpha Omicron Pi sophomore Wallena Goeldner helps represent the year's theatre history Canoe Flete theme. Photo courtesy of Oregon Daily Emerald

She said during the Vietnam era in 1962, the campus began dividing more. While many students protested against the war, others weren't as politically involved. And at the same time, the student population was growing and diversifying.

In the midst of crisis, the traditions slowly faded.

The campus has divided into groups of students who promote different causes, Hudzikiewicz said. Some community events such as Take Back the Night still bring together many students, she said. But most visible campus assemblies such as the Johnson Hall protests regarding the Workers Rights Consortium in 1999, create political boundaries -- ones that were not there before.

When she was a student, Hudzikiewicz said, students did not know or even care about many events happening outside the campus bubble. The only protest she remembers was one against closing down a popular campus cafe. The increased political awareness and involvement among students is a good change, she said.

But for her, the traditional events that shaped the campus environment at one time will not be forgotten.

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