Fun and games in 1967 during Monte Carlo Night.
and life of Bloomsburg State Teachers College. Ours is a friendly college and customs are not meant to intimidate or embarrass the student. They are a wholesome, democratic way for freshmen to meet the upperclassmen and faculty.” Examples of what new students had to endure at this time include wearing signs, carrying umbrellas, and wearing sweaters backwards. The climax was the “Green Hat Parade,” where all freshmen women wore hats they had made from green crepe paper. In the early years, men wore a small hat called a dink, usually black, while the women wore maroon and gold armbands. By 1949, all students were required to purchase and wear dinks, which now featured alternating maroon and gold stripes and either a maroon or a gold “B” on the front. Beginning with the fall of 1962, College Customs for freshmen was officially referred to as Orientation. The main purpose for the change, according to Student Affairs, was “to help the student adjust to college life more easily and to develop a wholesome attitude toward the college community life.” As a student-originated venture, it continued to be run by a committee overseen by the Community Government Association. It was essentially only for freshmen coming to campus straight out of high school, and so military veterans, transfer students, and those over 21 were exempt.
become mature college students. But even so, some traditions such as wearing dinks and signs with name and hometown, singing college songs, and memorizing cheers, were retained. For new students who did not comply with the rules, a tribunal and jury made up of members of the Orientation Committee passed judgment. Punishment for the guilty consisted primarily of being bombarded with sticky items such as honey, syrup, and shaving cream. Throughout the rest of the decade, Freshmen could, however, retaliate against the Orientation Committee the orientation process gradually changed and was more about getting in similar fashion. While orientation programs have new students acclimated to college continued, the rituals that had their life. By 1967 there were sessions origins in 1925 were enacted for where the freshmen would find out about the library, the bookstore, and one final time in the fall of 1970. meet in small groups with members Anything that seemed to even have the appearance of hazing was of the faculty. Fun events were still eliminated at that time, and since held, such as Monte Carlo Night, where students were given play money then Orientation has focused solely to gamble and enjoy games of chance. on helping each student get the most out of their experience as a student The activities comprising Orientation Week at this time were at Bloomsburg University. developed to prepare freshmen to
Women, and a few men, with their umbrellas, 1953.
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