Freshman Hazing

College students of today associate hazing with Greek letter societies, but in years past hazing of freshman by the upper classmen was a common thing in college life. Usually the hazing was a set period, a week or two at the beginning of school, and was intended as a sort of fun welcome and ice breaker for new students. The practice was carried on at Brockport from at least the 1920s up into the mid 1960s. Here are the "Freshman Ten Commandments" from the 1929 Saga Yearbook:

1. Thous shalt only use the basement door.


2. Thous shalt learn all verses of the Alma Mater.


3. Thou shalt greet all upper classmen.


4. Thou shalt use no cosmetics.


5. Thou shalt carry a washcloth - wet.


6. Thou shalt wear a large sheet of white drawing paper with a large green question mark six inches high and thy full name written across the bottom. These shall be worn about thy gawky necks.


7. Thou shalt, oh ye dogs of the male species, adorn thy stretchy necks with winged collars.


8. Thou shalt show thyself in knickers above thy knees to disclose thy ugly calves.


9. Thou shalt adorn thyselves with such decorations as a large green tie beneath thy baby chin.


10. Thou shalt obey all said commandments until 7:30 P.M. October 2.

Lost wedding ring mystery

A wedding ring, plain gold, probably a man's ring by the size, with an inscription of "N.S. to W.M., 8/2/1958" was found a few years ago in the college fitness center. The director of the center has tried other avenues of tracking down the owner of the ring with no success, and has contacted your blogger, who is the college archivist, to try to find the owner of the ring. If these initials or date remind of you of someone or you have information about the ownership of this ring please contact Charlie Cowling at ccowling@brockport.edu.

Betty Evershed Weidel '46

The archives has a wonderful scrapbook a student kept of her experiences here in the 1940s. Betty Evershed (Weidel) '46 included snapshots of her friends, places they lived, things they did, flyers, notices, stories from campus events and activities and much more. It really is a remarkable record of one student's experience here at that time. The only thing is that we don't have much information on Betty and her life subsequent to graduating from Brockport. She was from Rochester, trained as a teacher here, and lived at one time in Webster, but that's all we know really. The archivist is planning on scanning her scrapbook and making it available through this blog as well as in other ways, but if you know anything about Betty your information would be most welcome. Email the archivist, Charlie Cowling, at ccowling@brockport.edu. Thanks so much!