| Traditions | |
- AIDS Charity Basketball Game: This is one sporting event at Alfred that brings out a crowd. Every year, teams from AU and Alfred State compete against each other to raise money for victims of HIV. It really is a feel-good event and an opportunity for any unknown “ballers” to come out and show their stuff.
- The Alfies: It’s the premiere awards show event on the Alfred University campus. Okay, so it’s the only awards show on campus, but it’s our very own. Each year in Harder Hall, the University gives out awards specially tailored to the Alfred Community. The University splurges on classy hors d’oeurvres, and students arrive on our red carpet dressed to impress. It’s meant to be a light-hearted event, but sometimes the stakes get pretty high.
- Dance Concert: The Dance Concert is held yearly at the end of fall and spring semester. The show features student choreographed dances ranging in style from ballet to hip hop. Any student can volunteer to dance or choreograph a dance. Many students perform in more than one dance.
- Decorating the King Alfred Statue: In the midst of campus, there is a bronze statue of the University’s symbol and mascot, the revered Saxon, King Alfred. Lauded for his accomplishments in reviving education throughout medieval Europe, he is also a prime target for pranksters. Students like to put things like beer cans in his benevolently outstretched hand and garnish his crown with toilet paper, rotten fruit, and so forth.
- Hot Dog Day Weekend: If you can imagine a Labor Day parade running headlong into an Octoberfest celebration, you should have a pretty good idea of what Hot Dog Day is all about. Every spring, the town comes out for an entire weekend of drinking, games, and pork products. Craft booths line the Main Street, as well as games and rides. Hot Dog Day is also the premiere weekend for poor decision making and random hookups. It’s as though the whole town says “To hell with it, school’s almost over anyway!”
- Midnight Breakfast: During finals week, Ade Dining Hall opens its doors at midnight. Students weary from studying flock to Ade to eat, relax, and hang out. WALF FM, the campus radio station, supplies tunes, and as an added bonus, your favorite teachers serve up the grub!
- Playfair: During orientation week, all the freshmen are summoned together for ice breakers and activities. Once they have sufficiently bonded, they are divided by residence halls and pitted against each other in the Freshman Olympics. It sounds cheesy. It is cheesy, but where else will you ever be able to scream “I want a standing ovation!” and get one?!
- Senior Shows: Harder Hall is completely transformed from a smoke-belching art factory into a spectacular gallery space. Students, faculty, parents, and visitors come from all over to wander through five floors of exhibitions. The halls are also lined with tables of free wine, cheese, and hors d’oeuvres, but we like to think people come for the culture.
- Traying: Have I said it enough? It snows here, and the campus sits on a 60 degree incline. Naturally, sledding is a must. Still, not everyone could fit their toboggan in the family stationwagon, so they steal the conveniently-sized dinner trays from the dining halls and have at it!
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