| Traditions | |
- Airband, Senior Skits and Senior Superlatives : This tradition is broken up into two parts. The first, Airband, is a lip-sync and dance competition. Anyone can enter with any song, and a panel of faculty and staff picks a winner at the end of the performances. The second part is Senior Skits. Underclasswomen dress up as various seniors and perform a skit that playfully mocks the seniors for traits for which they are well-known, as well as honors their time at Chatham. After Senior Skits, Senior Superlatives are awarded by members of the senior class.
- Battle of the Classes: Each November, the four class years compete against one another in a week-long Battle of the Classes. Events include window painting (where each class is given a window in Anderson Dining Hall to decorate), a community service event, participation in on-campus events (for which each class receives participation points), a relay race, and finally, "Song Contest." For this, each class puts Chatham-themed lyrics to the melodies of popular songs. What results is very entertaining, generally involving skits, props, and media presentations.
- Buckets & Blossoms : At the end of spring semester, Chatham students pitch in to beautify the campus for the graduation ceremonies. Students are divided into groups which are then assigned to various parts of campus such as Mellon or JKM Library. Each group then mulches and plants flowers. In previous years, students have been rewarded for their volunteer efforts with a commemorative T-shirt and picnic.
- Candlelight, Chatham Eggnog and Winter Ball: Every December, about a week before finals, Chatham holds all three of these traditions on the same night. Candlelight is held in the chapel and is essentially a nondenominational winter church service with singing, readings, and finally a candle-lighting ceremony. After Candlelight, everyone heads to the Mellon Board Room for eggnog, where hors d'oeuvres, punch, and, of course, eggnog are served. Students mingle with faculty, staff, and one another. Once Chatham Eggnog has concluded, students head to Winter Ball, a dance held in the atrium of the Buhl Science Building. The dance is big at first, but dwindles quickly as most students end up going out. These three traditions also mark the first night that first-year students may have overnight guests.
- Closing Convocation : The reverse of Opening Convocation, this event is also held in the chapel but at the end of the year. Academic and service awards are bestowed, and the senior class passes on its class color. At this event, seniors wear their graduation gowns and "tutorial hats," which are decorated with the theme of that senior's tutorial (senior thesis project) to represent the work she has done. Closing Convocation also serves as a "moving up ceremony" for each class to move to the class she will be in the next year (juniors to seniors, sophomores to juniors, and first-years to sophomores).
- Fall Serenade: During New & Transfer Student Orientation, first-year and transfer students gather in the Athletic & Fitness Center to learn the Chatham alma mater from the orientation leaders; once they have learned the alma mater, the new students walk down the road to the president's home, where she is waiting on her front porch with various faculty. The assembled students serenade the group, after which they are invited into the president's home for refreshments. This is the first time many new students meet the University president.
- First-Year Ice Cream Social: Each fall, members of the incoming class are paired with big sisters—alumnae who have either completed the same major as their little sister or are from the same hometown. First-year students meet their big sisters at the ice cream social, held within the first few weeks of school.
- Ghost Walk: Ghost Walk occurs during Family & Friends Weekend in late October. Student tour guides walk around campus and tell spooky stories about many of the buildings on campus!
- House Olympics: Residents in each residence hall compete against one another in a week-long event. Participation points are awarded for attending on-campus events and participating in various relay races and contests. At the end of the week, the winning residence hall is awarded a prize.
- Moonlight Breakfast: During finals week, professors and other Chatham employees serve and cook breakfast for students the evening before finals start. It is a great way to relax before final exams!
- Opening Convocation : At the start of each school year, Chatham holds Opening Convocation in the chapel. The University president and faculty are there in full regalia. There are speakers with a connection to Chatham's global focus region of the year, usually an ambassador to the country/region or a visiting professor. The senior class is presented, and the other classes are welcomed. Afterward, a picnic lunch/dinner is held on the quad. The food and music/entertainment are also themed around that year's "global focus" country/region.
- Spring Fling: Hosted by Student Activities, this event is held each year at the end of the spring semester. There are bounce houses and other inflatables, crafts, games, and other stress-free activities. Some years this event is accompanied by live music and craft fairs, but it depends on that year's Student Activities staff and the weather on the day of the event.
- Spring Formal : This formal dance is held toward the end of April. Students may bring off-campus guests, and the location changes each year. Past Spring Formals have been held at the Lexus Club at PNC Park and on the Duchess ship of the Gateway Clipper Fleet. Dinner is also served, and alcohol is available to students 21 and older with proper identification.
- Tutorial Bonfire: After the spring due date for tutorials (Chatham's version of a senior thesis that every student has to complete to graduate), the seniors gather in front of the chapel where music is played, refreshments are served, and extra copies of the tutorial are burned in a giant bonfire.
- University Day: University Day marks the anniversary of May 1, 2007, when Chatham College became Chatham University. Students celebrate with a picnic and by performing the Traditional Maypole Dance. This event often coincides with Closing Convocation and Buckets & Blossoms.
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| Urban Legends | |
- Chatham used to have a system of underground tunnels that connected all of the buildings. It is said that when the buildings were populated as mansions, the residents of the homes used them to have affairs with one another.
- Fickes Hall was once the private residence of Edwin Stanton Fickes, who gained wealth as a prominent associate of the Aluminum Company of America. Students have been awoken by feeling of pressure upon their mattress, but they didn't see anything. Later, they were woken up again by the sounds of banging and screaming emanating from inside of the closet. The closet door had been shut, and the only thing inside the closet had been clothes and a full-length mirror. After calling Public Safety, it was discovered that the mirror had morphed into a u-shape, although the glass had not been shattered.
A little boy is said to haunt Fickes, as well. This child used to bounce his ball around the hallway until, one day, the ball bounced out the window. When the little boy tried to reach it, he fell out of the window and died. To this day, students say they hear noises of a ball bouncing. A room on the second floor of Fickes used to be a nursery, and the nurse would sleep in the room with the baby. The baby died, and the nurse hanged herself in the closet. Students can now see a dead baby and hear the nurse screaming.
- Laughlin House was donated by the Laughlin family of Jones and Laughlin Steel. The dining room on the first floor was used by the Laughlin family to lay out deceased family members for funeral services. To this day, the room will get cold at unexpected times. Students have described ghostly presences in their dorm rooms. Windows sometimes blow open or slam shut, or belongings disappear and reappear in other places. Other students have woken up to find a man in a white shirt sitting at the end of their bed staring at them. It is rumored that a Laughlin family member fell down the basement stairs and died. Now students who walk down the staircase feel a push or pull down the stairs as if someone is trying to make them fall.
- Mellon, the administration building, was donated to Chatham in 1940 by Andrew Mellon's son. When passing Andrew Mellon's portrait, one must greet Andrew Mellon politely in passing or it is said that he will cause horrible things to happen to you.
- Rea was donated by the Rea family, affiliated with a prominent iron foundry in Pittsburgh. Mrs. Rea is rumored to have had an affair with Mr. Laughlin and when Mr. Laughlin decided to end it, Mrs. Rea became so upset she hanged herself in a closet. Students can now feel the presence of a woman around Rea; this ghost is known to move furniture around in different dorm rooms. Children were always in the house, and to this day, children are often heard running around in the upper floors of Rea, and noises of crying babies are heard often, as well. Rea used to be an asylum for the elderly, too.
- The Carriage House (home to Student Affairs, the post office, and the bookstore) used to be the home of many of Mellon's servants. These servants still roam around the Carriage House as though it is still their home. The radiators clang randomly, and it's always cold, even if the heat is on. Students have reported seeing faces in the windows at night and hearing footsteps even when no one is around.
- Woodland Hall was built in 1909, and in 1952 housed an infirmary. Students in Woodland have heard little children's voices in the hall saying, "Let's play! Let's play!" "The Blue Lady" is said to haunt Woodland, as well. Students will see a blue shape in the air. One girl claimed to see it really late at night in the elevator. She saw a blue image in the air, and it seemed to follow her to her room and suddenly disappear. No one knows who this figure is.
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| Did You Know? | |
- There is a group of three turkeys that makes Chatham its home each fall. Sometimes these turkeys like to chase students around campus!
- The College for Women motto is: "Filiae Nostrae Sicut Antarii Lapides" or "That our daughters may be as cornerstones (polished after the similitude of a palace)"—from Psalm 144.
- The College for Women's colors are purple and white, while the official Chatham University colors are green and white.
The colors were chosen because of the American and British suffrage movements of the late 19th century, and the early 20th century adopted the colors green, purple, and white to advance their causes. Many women's colleges from these time periods also adopted the same colors in testimony to women's suffrage. Therefore, the original colors of Chatham College for Women remain purple and white.
- Each undergraduate class is pinned with its colors upon matriculation to the University. Each year, one of the four colors is passed down from graduating seniors to incoming first-years. The class colors are: green, rose, yellow, and red.
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