| Traditions | |
- Campus Publications: Publications at Hampshire, particularly student newspapers, come and go every few years. The oldest publication is the Dakin TP which provides Dakin residents with toilet-side reading, but the longest continuously-running publication is the Omen (omen.hampshire.edu), the free speech publication publishing since 1993. The current incarnation of the school newspaper is the Climax, a revival of the newspaper’s original name. Past names include: the Climax (1971–1981), Apostrophe (1981–1984), Communique (1984/1985), In Black and White (1985–1987), Permanent Press (1987–1992), Hampshire Examiner (1992–1993), Phoenix (1993–1996), Forward (1997–2003), and, again, the Climax (2003–Present). The Fred, Merrill’s counterpart to the Dakin TP, has been revived in recent years as well.
- Div Buttons: Central Records give students buttons when they pass a division. When students pass Division I, they get a “Division II” button, when they pass Division II, they get a “Division III” button, and when they pass their final Division III, they get “Division Free” buttons. Locals in the area recognize the buttons and will often congratulate students they see wearing them (like at Collective Copies, a worker-owned business where students go to make copies of their portfolios).
- Drag Ball: Every spring, students and organizations like the Queer Community Alliance, Trans Student Alliance, and the Women’s Center organize Drag Ball. The main event is the campus-wide dance party featuring student performers and bands, and students often dress and act a different gender identity than the one they typically represent.
- Hampshire Halloween: The Halloween bash at Hampshire was once a notorious affair of debauchery and hallucinogenic drugs called “Trip or Treat” that Rolling Stone once listed as a must-see party. Some of the highlights include art installations, dances, hayrides, fireworks, and the creativity of attendees’ costumes, though in recent years the event has tamed down (and cut back on certain activities). It is now an invite-only party in which every student has limited invites to give out to their non-Hampshire friends.
- Keg Hunt: Every Easter, groups of students go out and hide kegs of alcohol in the woods on campus, then others go out in search—cups in hand—of the hidden kegs. People get drunk and lay in the grass, play Frisbee, and sometimes run around naked. Needless to say, this is not a school-sponsored event.
- Ringing the Div Free Bell: Hampshire students used to ring the bell after they passed any division, but over the years it morphed into a rite of passage for Div Frees (those who have finished their Div III projects). Students do a range of things, from casual bell-ringing during the day to full-out parties with food, friends, and champagne.
- Velvis: The tradition of the Velvis (a velvet painting of Elvis) was that students would steal the Velvis from one another and perch him in the common spaces of their homes. The unofficial rules were that he had to be in a public area, visible (not hidden away), and your mod had to be left unlocked. The Velvis was given to outgoing president Gregory Prince as a farewell gift, and many students regard this as the end of the tradition, but others have floated the idea of stealing it back from Prince in the spirit of the Velvis tradition.
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| Urban Legends | |
- A UMass alumnus created Scooby Doo and based each of the main characters on one of the Five Colleges, Hampshire College being represented by Shaggy.
- Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns graduated from Hampshire College: Yes, Burns is an alumnus, but Hampshire’s official policy is to recognize any person who attended the College for two semesters to be alumni. Burns’ name is nowhere to be found in the Hampshire Div III archives.
- Hampshire is/was officially “clothing optional.” To this day, residences informally designate themselves “clothing optional,” and streakers sometimes shock campus visitors, but there is no campus-wide policy.
- If you ring the Div Free Bell (by the entrance of the library) before you complete your Div III, you will be doomed to fail. Most chalk this one up to myth, but so far no one has done a documented study.
- Merrill and Dakin blueprints were based on those for an insane asylum and prison respectively. Some speculate that the horseshoe design of Merrill (bathrooms split the rooms) reflect the designer’s wish to have “patients” be unable to look across the hall at each other. Others attribute Dakin’s unusual architecture (the halls are all linked by common bathrooms) to a possible prison layout.
- The circular Greenwich buildings (the “donuts”) were part of a military practice exercise.
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