When it comes to graduation, there’s no shortage of urban legends designed to inspire, frighten, or just elicit a chuckle. Decide if these popular tales are true or false, then scroll down to find out if you’re a candidate for a diploma in discernment.
1. The Graduation Gift
A man asked his father for a sports car as his college graduation gift; he received a Bible instead. Angered by the gift, the son never opened the Bible. He rediscovered it years later, after his father passed away. When he opened the Bible gift box, he found a car key and the words “Paid in Full.”
2. Making the Grade
Henry Kissinger was the last student to graduate from Harvard with perfect grades. He graduated summa cum laude in 1950.
3. The Sneeze
In response to a legal injunction barring invocation and benediction prayers from a high school commencement ceremony, a graduating senior faked a sneeze during his speech so that a group of students could cry out, “God bless you.”
4. Suicide Prevention
A boy befriended a nerdy kid at his high school. Years later, in the valedictory speech at their high school graduation, the nerdy kid thanked the boy for befriending him that day. Were it not for that intervention, the boy admitted he would have committed suicide that weekend.
5. Handshake Ban
In some colleges, congratulatory handshakes at commencement have been banned as a precaution against disease.
6. Virgin Awakening
If a virgin ever graduates from the University of Maryland, Testudo – the school’s bronzed mascot – will rise from his pedestal and fly over the crowd during commencement.
7. Dangerous Caps
A university has requested that graduating students not throw their caps in the air, calling the action a safety hazard.
True or False?
1. Gift: It’s an oft-told tale of hidden treasure, but there’s no record of this ever actually happening. To stay on the safe side, never spurn a gift!
2. Grade: Though Kissinger reportedly received an A in all his courses at Harvard, he was not the only student to achieve that distinction. In 2001, Kevin Schwartz earned perfect grades; in 2003, his sister, Lisa Schwartz, earned straight A’s as well.
3. Sneeze: It’s true, and it happened on May 20, 2001 at Washington Community High School in Washington, IL. Ryan Brown was the student who used a sneeze to protest the court’s prohibition of commencement prayer.
4. Prevention: It’s an inspirational story about the impact we can have on another’s life, but there are no reports of it happening for real. The story is based on a fictional tale that first appeared in “Chicken Soup for the Soul.”
5. Handshakes: Unfortunately, it’s all too true. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, Indiana University, Purdue University, Northeastern University, the University of Hawaii, Florida Gulf Coast University, and the University of South Florida, commencement handshakes were banned this year as a precaution against swine flu.
6. Virgin: Many college students spread superstitions about virgins at their schools, but we’ve yet to see statues come to life.
7. Caps: It’s no joke. Anglia Ruskin University has advised students against throwing their caps in the air because of the potential for injury. Several years ago, a graduating student at the U.K. school needed stitches after being hit by a flying cap.
Have you ever played the icebreaker game “Two truths and a lie”? Basically, each person tells the group three things about herself, and the group has to decide which two items are true, and which one is the lie.
Sound easy? Try your hand at the game with these college urban legends. Choose the lie before scrolling down for the answers. No cheating!
The Legends
1. Dissect an Aunt
Imagine rolling up your sleeves for gross anatomy lab, only to discover that you are, in fact, seeing dead people – and one of the cadavers is someone you’ve seen before. It happened to a medical student who discovered that one of the cadavers presented to her class was her great aunt. Of course, a different cadaver was immediately substituted by the state anatomical board.
2. Doing Laps to Get a Degree
At Columbia University, a stellar student who completed his degree requirements in three years, finished at the top of his class, and later earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and taught at Columbia was denied his bachelor’s degree because he failed to pass the mandatory school swim test. After informing Columbia that he had since learned how to swim and asking the school to waive his disqualification, he was finally granted his bachelor’s degree – 60 years later.
3. Beware the Brothel
Have you ever wondered why your school doesn’t have a sorority house? It might be because of local brothel laws, which prohibit more than a specified number of unrelated females from living together. In these municipalities, sorority houses are illegal … so members of the sisterhood stay in the dorms.
Truth or Lie?
1. Dissect an Aunt: It’s true, and it happened in 1982 at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Other urban legends about discovering the cadaver of a long-lost parent or a celebrity, however, are false, including the tale of the corpse of English novelist Laurence Sterne, who died in 1768. But the fact that it could happen and it has happened is creepy enough!
2. Doing Laps: This one’s for real, too. In 1923, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler was denied his bachelor’s degree from Columbia because he couldn’t pass the mandatory swim test. Actually, Columbia and a handful of other schools still require students to pass a swim test before graduation. Untrue urban legends about university swim tests do abound, however, citing that the tests came at the behest of a wealthy benefactor whose own child drowned.
3. Beware the Brothel: Despite constant retelling at colleges across the country, there are no “brothel laws” that tie a building’s classification as a bordello to the number and gender of its occupants. Some municipalities do have zoning laws that prohibit more than a specified number of nonfamily members from living together, but buildings in violation of those codes would only be labeled a brothel on the basis of what goes on inside the house. Plus, sororities and fraternities are exempt from those housing restrictions.
Comment up: What’s your favorite college urban legend?
Let’s face it. This year’s graduating class at Arizona State University had one of the best commencement speakers possible: the President of the United States. With approximately 60,000 audience members gathered in the university’s football stadium – named Sun Devil Stadium – Obama asked graduates to eschew materialistic endeavors in favor of a leading a life of commitment and service to the community.
“It is clear that we need to build a new foundation – a stronger foundation – for our economy and our prosperity, rethinking how we educate our children, and care for our sick, and treat our environment,” said the president.
But unlike most commencement speakers, Obama didn’t receive an honorary degree from the school at which he was speaking. In deference to a tradition of not honoring elected officials, Arizona State University announced prior to the ceremony, that they would not be bestowing a degree upon the president.
Obama understood, even joking about the matter.
“Now, before I begin, I’d just like to clear the air about that little controversy everyone was talking about a few weeks back,” he said. “I have to tell you, I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. It won’t happen again.”
It’s official: the latest victim of the recession, is the higher education system – specifically, college sports teams. From cross-country to skiing, schools have been forced to halt scholarships and cut some teams entirely or face troubling budget deficits.
Here is a small sampling of the colleges affected: Stanford University’s fencing team will have to find some non-Ivy funding fast or be forced to put away their swords; the University of Cincinnati will no longer offer scholarships for men in cross-country, track, or swimming; and the University of Washington is cutting all of its swimming teams in order to cut back on $1.2 million in spending.
The trend is continuing at universities big and small, and teams as popular as soccer and as lesser-known as competitive pistol are feeling the crunch. The NY Times warns that this could “deeply alter the college sports landscape” while also affecting the country’s performance during future Olympic events.
Let’s just hope that the situation doesn’t reach as dire proportions as the Space Olympics did.
How’s this for procrastination? After dropping out of college approximately 15 years ago, Jimmy Fallon is finally going to receive his bachelor’s degree.
As a former player on Saturday Night Live and the current host of Late Night, Fallon’s long been majoring in humor. But back when he attended the College of St. Rose in Albany between 1992 and 1995, Fallon had his eye first on computer science and then on communications. It’s for the latter discipline that he’ll be receiving his degree this month.
Although Fallon had left college with just a semester left to complete, he was able to earn the last few credits he needed by submitting a portfolio of his work from over the years.
With their close quarters and high population density, as well as some students’ rebelliously unhygienic ways, college campuses are popular breeding grounds for disease and viruses. Combine all this with the fact that many students regularly travel abroad – whether for spring break or study abroad programs – and you’ll understand why college administrators sit up and take notice when talk of a global pandemic looms.
The latest cause for concern is H1N1 (swine flu). Originating in Mexico, this virus has a little over 200 confirmed cases across the nation with one incidence of death. College administrators have taken notice, especially considering the amount of schools that have study abroad programs in Mexico, and have begun taking action to inform students about the virus and protect them in whatever ways they can.
If you’re curious about what colleges have had reported H1N1 cases, or how they’re reacting to the virus, you can check out the International Association of Emergency Managers-Universities and Colleges Committee’s online map or this article from Inside Higher Ed.
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2. Making the Grade
5. Handshake Ban
6. Virgin Awakening
