| Traditions | |
- Celebration of Undergraduate Achievements: The University holds a ceremony every spring to recognize Undergraduate Excellence and Outstanding Achievement. Based on student projects, awards are given out for achievements in all areas of academics. Students and faculty are both honored for outstanding accomplishments.
- Chillfest: Chillfest is a series of events spread out over several weeks during the spring semester to help students make new friends and have fun. Diversity Day, the Stony Brook Fountain Festival, which celebrates the Year of Community Leadership, the Strawberry Festival, Pack the Gym Night and Asian Pride Night, Fraternity and Sorority Night, Alpha Phi Alpha Black and Gold Pageant are just some of the multicultural presentations from campus student clubs and groups, while free blood-pressure screenings, live music, sports demonstrations, and WBLI Radio help students to “chill” during the opening weeks of the spring semester.
- Commuter Fall Festival: The Commuter Student Association and the Office of Student Commuter Affairs hold a three day event every fall called the Commuter Fall Festival. Educational, recreational, and social programs help students to get involved, meet new people, and make friends.
- Diversity Day: Stony Brook prides itself on the huge amount of diversity amongst its population, and Diversity Day is a festival to celebrate culture, religion, age, sexual orientation, nationality, and lifestyle every spring semester. Through performances, poetry, arts, music, and educational booths, students learn about diversity and its positive impact here at Stony Brook University.
- Earthday/Earthstock: Protect and enjoy the environment with a festival featuring performances by bands like the Zen Tricksters, famous authors and speakers, and many exhibits. In previous years, Stony Brook’s own eight-person vehicle, the octus, was on display, along with exhibits of the newest hybrid cars. There were dance and drumming performances by the Birds of Prey, Musicians for Peace, and a recycled percussion performance.
- Fall Fest: Fall Fest is an annual carnival with food, drinks, rides, games, live music, and prizes held in the large parking lot between the Kelly Quad and the main campus.
- Fountain Fest: The Fountain Fest celebrates the Year of Community Leadership, and features the Strawberry Festival, Diversity Day programs, music, games, entertainment, and more.
- G-Fest: G-Fest is an annual carnival held in G-Quad, featuring popular bands—always a great success.
- Homecoming & Wolfstock: Perhaps the biggest tradition at Stony Brook is Homecoming. Everyone on campus gets involved in one way or another, even the commuter population. To “kick off” Homecoming, the players and cheerleaders are out to meet everyone, amidst a fair of entertainment and prizes. The Homecoming King & Queen Competition is a popular event, and the parade the next day is even bigger, where all the different student organizations and University departments make floats and banners. Wolfstock is a huge event that takes place just before the game, a fair that features just about everything you could imagine. This is where Stony Brook’s school spirit is evident. After the game, Wolfstock continues with a barbeque, live music, and entertainment. The next day is the annual Homecoming 5K Run/Walk. This run around campus features T-shirt and goodie bags to the first 200 registrants, and prizes for the fastest student, faculty/staff member, and alumni. Throughout the extended weekend, alumni also hold reunions. This is what makes Stony Brook what it is.
- I-CON: Another popular event every spring is I-CON, a three day science fiction convention. It features presentations, science fiction movie marathons, and guest speakers. Science fiction aficionados come from all over the world to see members of Star Trek and other popular programs speak. Games, contests, wild costumes, and staged combat can all be found here.
- Midnight Breakfast : During finals week every spring, Stony Brook staff and faculty prepare and serve a free feast of eggs, pancakes, sausage, french toast, and more at midnight in the Stony Brook Union. Lines form that lead outside the building, so make sure you get there on time, or it could all run out before you get there.
- Midnight Madness: The traditional start to the NCAA basketball season at Stony Brook is called Midnight Madness. The Seawolves basketball team holds its first practice at midnight. There are lots of prizes and giveaways, including contests for T-shirts, TVs, VCRs, and even free tuition!
- Opening Activities : To get the ball rolling at the beginning of every fall semester, Stony Brook holds its Opening Activities, a series of social, educational, and recreational programs. This is where students get to learn which clubs are on campus, what they do, and get a little taste of each one.
- Pride Patrol: Once every fall and spring, students, faculty and staff, in conjunction with Stony Brook’s Green Team, participate in planting new landscaping, spring cleaning, and beautifying the campus.
- Roth Pond Regatta: One of the more whimsical and wildly popular events is the Roth Pond Regatta. Students, faculty, and staff compete for prizes in a boat race across Roth Pond. However, there is a catch. These boats must be handmade from cardboard and duct tape. Just imagine seeing your friends, or even professors, go down in the middle of the race and have to improvise a way back to shore! The Regatta is held annually on the last Friday of April.
- Shirley Strum Kenny Arts Festival: Named after the President of the University, the Shirley Strum Kenny Arts Festival is an annual celebration of the arts at Stony Brook. Music and dance performances, art exhibits, poetry readings, and many other activities are featured during the week-long event. The street fair is the highlight of the festival, with contests, Tarot Card readings, food, a Battle of the Bands, a caricaturist, cultural displays, henna tattoos, karaoke, giveaways, and a variety of other activities.
- Stony Brook Film Festival: The Stony Brook Film Festival takes place every summer in the Staller Center for the Arts. New Independent, Foreign and Art films are screened, many for the first time, on the center’s huge screens and state of the art projection equipment. Many Hollywood stars turn out for this prestigious event.
- Strawberry Festival: Traditionally, the last Wednesday in April is the Strawberry Festival. Students, faculty and staff are all on hand to enjoy the thousands of strawberries that make their way to the academic mall. Strawberry smoothies, Chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry shortcake, strawberry strudel, strawberry crepes—you name it, it’s there.
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