| Traditions | |
- Bacchanalia: After class officially ends in the spring, Bacchanalia begins! Students flock to the North Lawn for a day of dancing, live music, games, free food, and free beer (if you’re over 21). This is a time when students of all ages truly unite on campus and celebrate together. Look out for lots of weepy seniors who aren’t happy about graduating.
- Bates Brunch : No matter how hungover students are, they stumble down Bates Hill on Saturday and Sunday mornings for an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. Make your own waffles and custom order your omelets. By 12:30 p.m., the dining hall is packed; arrive by 11:30 a.m. to get a booth.
- Cabaret: This is the highly-popular proving ground for singers, dancers, actors, and comedians on campus; consider it the SLC equivalent of a championship sports game. Anything goes on stage, so long as your performance is good, funny, sexy, or comically bad. Over the course of a year, students often return to the stage in attempts to top their previous acts with new ones that are increasingly outlandish and extravagant.
- Casino Night: For one night only, the gym in Campbell Sports Center turns into a brisk, high-stakes casino, with a variety of games, live jazz, catered hors d'oeuvres, and big prizes to reel students in from the outside world.
- Coffee and Donuts: Distributed by SLAC in the basement atrium of the library, free coffee and donuts keep students chugging through the late nights of Conference Week.
- Formals: Once in the fall and once in the spring, hundreds upon hundreds of SLC students flock in evening attire to a large tent erected on the South Lawn to dance their feet off. By far the biggest social event of each semester, the headlining DJ or band is the topic of heated discussion on campus for weeks before the event.
- Homecoming: A week of evening festivities leads up to the biggest basketball game of the year, followed by a Blue Room dance to celebrate the Gryphons, win or lose.
- Midnight Breakfast: During Conference Week at the end of each semester, the College opens Bates at midnight for an early-morning celebration of music, food, and prizes. Students who are pulling all-nighters come to get recharged with pancakes and cookies, while students who have finished their work come to celebrate the end of the semester.
- Relaxation Stations: SLAC's conference week havens designed to soothe the frayed nerves of students burned out from too many all-nighters. Free massages, cocoa, and arts-n-crafts are staples.
- Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadow Cast Production: Whether you’re a die-hard Rocky fan or a so-called Rocky “virgin,” this annual fall semester event is worth checking out, if only to see your classmates decked out in ridiculous leather outfits. The notorious 1975 film is projected onto the wall in Reisinger while a well-practiced cast of students lip sync, act, and dance on stage. Preceding the film is a pre-show during which the cast puts on a series of hilarious skits and songs.
- Winterfest: SLC kids mosey from club tables at the campus organization fair through exotic refreshments run by student volunteers to the gym, crowded with novelties, inflatable amusements, and a mechanical bull, all to pulsating beats from a massive sound system.
|