Lighting the Campus with Luminaries

At 7am on a December morning in 1969, a number of UNCG students gathered in front of the Elliott University Center with 2000 candles, white paper bags, soufflé cups, and a really big pile of sand. With these supplies, they started a campus tradition which continues today: the annual luminaries display.

Alumni House with luminaries

Before the project could begin, Kim Ketchum, president of the UNCG senior class of 1970, presented the idea for the display to Katherine Taylor, dean of students, and to Terry Weaver, manager of the Elliott University Center. They agreed to allow the students to proceed with the display, and ultimately, the project received the blessing of Chancellor James S. Ferguson. Chancellor Ferguson provided money to purchase the sand and candles from his discretionary fund. The white bags and soufflé cups were donated by the cafeteria.

Throughout the day, students stopped by to help assemble the luminaries. They carefully placed sand and a candle (balanced on the soufflé cup) in each bag. Ketchum and six other students used a Physical Plant vehicle to position the luminaries strategically along the campus streets. Around 6pm, students emerged from the residence halls to light the candles. As the luminaries burned, groups sang Christmas carols around the campus and gathered to drink hot cider and hot chocolate around a bonfire that burned in a metal pit. 

Ketchum recalled, “It was a success then, and it’s very gratifying that our class started a tradition that endures to this day. I think that this probably was the first large luminary display in Guilford County, and the rest of the area picked up on it.” 

Luminaries at Fountain Plaza, 1995

UNCG’s sororities and fraternities carry on this tradition today, preparing the luminaries, lighting them, and cleaning up. In 2011 sustainable luminaries were introduced, which decreased prep-time and eliminated potential hazards. And, as is part of the campus tradition, when the candles burn out, students return to their studies, as Fall semester final exams loom in the immediate future.

History of Rat Day

The tradition of Rat Day at Woman's College (now UNCG) began in the 1930s as part of the initiation process of the four campus literary societies. This annual one-day event typically took place during the month of October or November and was promoted as a fun time of getting to know one another.  In reality, it was a day of hazing. Freshman girls, who were called “Rats”, were required to dress in a particular fashion and perform various tasks dictated by the Sophomores who were known as “Cats.”

Freshman Rats bowing down to Sophmore Cats

Unfortunately for the Freshmen, they never knew what day would be Rat Day, and they were often surprised when they were woken up at 5:30 am and ordered to march outside.  The activities would last until the evening, concluding around 6pm with a large bonfire and celebratory party.  Some years, however, the day ended with “Rat Court” where nine Sophomore Cats were selected as “Judges” and ten Freshman Rats were put on a mock trial.  The farcical event included court lawyers, bailiffs, and other typical court proceedings. Inevitably most Freshmen were found guilty of their factitious crimes and ordered to sustain various “punishments.”

Some of the various fashion rules given throughout the history of Rat Days included:

• Not being allowed to wear makeup
• Having to wear paper bibs and paper ears all day to resemble a rat
• Having your name or the word “RAT” written on your forehead in lipstick
• Being required to wear one high heel and one flat heel
• Stuffing a stocking with paper and using it as a tail
• Drawing black whiskers on face and black nose

In addition to these ridiculous fashion requirements, the Freshman Rats were also given specific tasks to complete throughout the day, such as:

• Cleaning the McIver statue with a toothbrush
• Washing and giving pedicures to faculty dogs
• Various housekeeping tasks like cleaning bathrooms, dorm rooms, and the dinning hall
• Writing love letters to males they may or may not have known
• Stopping automobiles to get autographs from the driver

Lastly, the sophomores instituted random rules that had to be followed throughout the day, including:

• When requested to be road runners, each freshman had to act accordingly complete with sounds of "beep beep" and "zoom zoom"
• Addressing all Sophomores as “Your Excellency Madam Cat”
• Each Freshman must refer to herself as “it”
• Upon the call of “Air Raid” by any Sophomore, each Freshman was to pull her pillow case over her head

Not everyone approved of Rat Day and throughout the years there were calls to abolish the “ridiculous, useless, infantile” activity.  In 1939, Dr. Ruth Collings, who was the Director of Health, wrote a letter to Chancellor Walter Clinton Jackson describing the stress and injuries occurred because of such antics.   In 1936, it was reported that one girl received a black eye and another girl broke her foot.  Fortunately for students today, Rat Day ended in the early 1970s.

All Along the Clocktower

University Clocktower in the snow, 1995

Standing near the southwest end of the University Dining Hall, near the Jackson Library Tower, is UNCG's University Clocktower. The Clocktower was a gift to the University by members of the Class of 1941 as part of their 50th class reunion. The Class raised approximately $45,000 to support the construction of the Clocktower in 1991.

 On October 4, 1991, as part of the University's Centennial Celebration of the 100th anniversary of its founding, UNCG held a groundbreaking ceremony, featuring leaders from the Class of 1941 reunion committee along with Ann H. Gaither (Chair of the Board of Trustees), Dr. Richard Moore (Vice Chancellor for Development and University Relations) and Chancellor William E. Moran.

An aerial view of the Clocktower, from the Jackson Library Tower

Alumna Charlotte Abbate of Durham (Class of 1982) was selected as the project's designer and architect. Commenting on the Clocktower's design, Abbate said, "While clocktowers are found on other college and university campuses, the design of this one is very much unique to UNCG. Our objective was to design the clocktower using materials and images that relate to the surrounding architecture at the University." To accomplish this, Abbate used four large concrete columns inspired by columns found at the entrance to the Dining Hall. Additionally, the tubular steel design in the clocktower drew from similar steel tubing used in the Dining Hall and Spencer Residence Hall.

Wonder if they graduated on time?

A year and a half after the groundbreaking ceremony, the University Clocktower was completed and officially dedicated on Saturday, May 15 in a 2pm ceremony held as part of UNCG's commencement weekend as well as the 100th anniversary of the founding of the UNCG Alumni Association. Four members of the Class of 1941 participated in the ceremony. Anne Braswell Rowe of Wilmington, Helen Fondren Lingle of Osprey, Fla., Mildred Younts of Greensboro, and Elizabeth Booker of Greensboro represented their classmates in officially presenting the gift of the 17-feet-high Clocktower to the University.

Twenty years after its dedication, the Clocktower continues to serve as a campus focal point. While a plaque noting the Clocktower as a gift from the Class of 1941 lies directly underneath the structure, many students never see or read it. Campus tradition holds that walking under the Clocktower means that you won't graduate on time. Some students even take the extra steps to avoid the bricks expanding from underneath the Clocktower altogether.

Celebrating “Service” with a Park Night Tradition

From 1920 through 1935, the Friday evening of commencement weekend at the North Carolina College for Women (later Woman’s College and now UNCG) featured a ceremony known as Park Night. This allegorical drama typically took place outdoors in an outdoor theater constructed in Peabody Park. The production featured a character named Service (meant to represent the ideals of the school) as well as her attendants Mind, Body, and Spirit.
 

A scene from the 1923 Park Night ceremony

In a July 25, 1927 letter, alumnae Julia Cherry Spruill discussed the origins of Park Night. Spruill had been appointed chairman of a committee to promote school spirit amongst students. She was asked to highlight particular features of the school that made her most proud. Spruill recalled deciding “our park was our peculiar possession of which we were particularly proud, and that we could have some symbolical exercises down there which would represent the highest ideals of our college.” She consulted with President Julius Foust, who agreed to sponsor the production and to clear some land in Peabody Park for a theater.

Selection of the student to portray Service was conducted by secret ballot. A 1929 Carolinian article noted, “this is the highest honor that a student can win at this college and goes each year to the girl in the senior class who in the opinion of her associates has rendered the most outstanding service during her college career.” For example, the role of Service in 1926 went to Georgia Kirkpatrick of Efland. Kirkpatrick was class president, a charter member and president of the Alethian Society, member of the Faculty-Student Council, cabinet member of the Athletic Association, member of the Playlikers, and a staff member of both the Carolinian newspaper and the Pine Needles yearbook.

Prologue dance from the 1923 Park Night ceremony

The script for Park Night was written by the students, with the intent of it becoming a yearly tradition. The production began with a prologue in the form of a dance. It was followed by a dramatic processional featured fifty students dressed in white robes, carrying lit torches, and singing the college song. Service and her attendants then entered, and each attendant presented Service with allegorical gifts, often through a solo dance as well as a lyrical Grecian-style poem.  After the individual presentations, Service spoke, accepting the gifts and giving a dramatic monologue. The production concluded with an epilogue featuring “a Dance to the Future.”

Although the tradition of Park Night ended in 1935 when graduating seniors decided to forgo the production in favor of honoring a number of leading classmates in a formal ceremony, “Service” remains the motto of UNCG today. From the words of Service’s concluding monologue, “when full liberty, sweetness, and joy have driven out misery and night, we shall live in the light of the glorious day when Service has won all the earth.”

Fraternities and sororities at UNCG

Prior to the founding of the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in 1891, Charles Duncan McIver was very supportive of the notion of societies for the female students.  In 1893, the Adelphian and Cornelian became the first two literary societies on campus and almost all of the students joined either one of the two groups.  In the years following, a joint committee of students would divide the list of new freshman girls and place them within either society.  Society invitations and initiations became an exciting time for each student as some expressed great joy in their placement while others were visibly upset. In 1896, fourteen girls attempted to create their own secret society tied to a Greek letter sorority.  Upon discovering this, McIver quickly reproached the girls and demanded they disband the group or face expulsion, believing such exclusive secret organizations were inappropriate to the mission of public education.  Two other literary societies would later be established on the campus as student body population continued to grow.  In 1918, the Dikean Society was founded and the Aletheian Society was later established in 1923.  The societies would continue to operate as part of student life on the campus until 1953 when they were abolished by a student vote. 

The next several decades saw a general distain by the administration regarding the establishment of a Greek system.  In 1975, believing social sororities (and later fraternities) to be elitist, divisive, and irrelevant to academics, a faculty committee voted against the issue of whether to establish a Greek system at UNCG. However, recurring student interested prompted a second study in 1977-1979 and found that thirty-one percent of the student population would consider joining a fraternity or sorority.  With such support, the Board of Trustees approved a five year trial period for a Greek system and in 1980 the first rush took place. By the fall of 1981, there were seven fraternities and seven sororities officially recognized on the campus.  With continuing interest and growth, the five year probationary period expired and a Greek system was official established at UNCG in 1984.  As of 2012, there were ten social fraternities and social eleven sororities on the UNCG campus.

One key iconic symbol that is shared by UNCG fraternities and sororities is the Rock.  The Rock is a 12.7 ton boulder that was imported to the campus from a rock quarry in nearby Jamestown by the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity in 1973.  It was placed between the dining halls and dormitories and would serve as a message board for the various fraternal organization as it was continuously painted over again and again.  There exists an unwritten rule that a groups message has to stay up for twenty four hours before being written over.  Prior to the Rock, students would paint and decorate the statue of Charles Duncan McIver as way to promote their messages.  However, after years of continued abuse, the statute was beginning to deteriorate thus prompting a new method of communication.

Beating the Heat at Yum Yum

The warmer weather of spring brings out birds and flowers -- and a need for ice cream! At UNCG, for over 90 years, students, faculty, and staff have been able to beat the heat with a tasty cone from the Yum Yum ice cream shop.

The original site of Yum Yum, with construction
on the Jackson Library tower in the background, 1973

This campus tradition dates back to 1921, when Wisdom Brown (W. B.) Aydelette opened his now-famous ice cream shop on the corner of Spring Garden Street and Forest Avenue. It sat at the edge of the campus then known as the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG). Because the site what on the western edge of the Greensboro city limits at the time, the store was named West End Ice Cream Company.

At first, there were only a few flavors of homemade ice cream offered -- vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. But soon, the owner introduced a flavor he called "yum yum," an ice cream that is believed to have included soggy Grape Nuts cereal. According to popular tales, the flavor itself was never very popular, but the name was soon adopted for the store itself (although the formal "West End Ice Cream Company" remains).

Students at the Woman's College (as UNCG was known from 1932-1963) flocked to Yum Yum for its food as well as its atmosphere. In a 1994 interview with the Carolinian, alumnae Sharon Garrett remembered Yum Yum as a place to relax and escape from the restrictive residence hall lifestyle of the 1960s. "When we were there," she noted, "it represented some sort of freedom and just being together with your friends. It was like a breath of fresh air."

Yum Yum at its current location, 2002

In 1973, the building that housed Yum Yum was condemned and scheduled to be replaced with a new administration building (now the Mossman Building) for the expanding UNCG campus. Aydlette was able to acquire a building on the opposite corner across Spring Garden from his former site, and moved his operations across the street.

Aydelette passed away in 1984 at the age of 97, but his family continues his legacy today.

Lighting the Campus with Luminaries

At 7am on a December morning in 1969, a number of UNCG students gathered in front of the Elliott University Center with 2000 candles, white paper bags, soufflé cups, and a really big pile of sand. With these supplies, they started a campus tradition which continues today: the annual luminaire display.

Alumni House with luminaries

Before the project could begin, Kim Ketchum, president of the UNCG senior class of 1970, presented the idea for the display to Katherine Taylor, dean of students, and to Terry Weaver, manager of the Elliott University Center. They agreed to allow the students to proceed with the display, and ultimately, the project received the blessing of Chancellor James S. Ferguson. Chancellor Ferguson provided money to purchase the sand and candles from his discretionary fund. The white bags and soufflé cups were donated by the cafeteria.

Throughout the day, students stopped by to help assemble the luminaries. They carefully placed sand and a candle (balanced on the soufflé cup) in each bag. Ketchum and six other students used a Physical Plant vehicle to position the luminaries strategically along the campus streets. Around 6pm, students emerged from the residence halls to light the candles. As the luminaries burned, groups sang Christmas carols around the campus and gathered to drink hot cider and hot chocolate around a bonfire that burned in a metal pit. 

Ketchum recalled, “It was a success then, and it’s very gratifying that our class started a tradition that endures to this day. I think that this probably was the first large luminary display in Guilford County, and the rest of the area picked up on it.” 

Luminaries at Fountain Plaza, 1995

UNCG’s sororities and fraternities have carried on this tradition ever since, preparing the luminaries, lighting them, and cleaning up. In 2011 sustainable luminaires were introduced, which decreased prep-time and eliminated potential hazards. And, as is part of the campus tradition, when the candles burn out, students return to their studies, as Fall semester final exams loom in the immediate future.