Interview with IU Student 1
Interview was collected from IU Senior AJ Boyd, 22. AJ is a tour guide for IU and has been involved in IU’s Intensive Freshman Seminar (IFS) program all four years of her undergraduate experience. She is an Indiana native. Interview was conducted following dinner on a Saturday night in apartment living room. A second person is present in the room.
Full interview
Selected quotations
“When Showalter was put in place, it was not popular…”
“Now Showalter Fountain is like ingrained in IU’s culture and history and symbolism…”
“We’re technically not supposed to actually get in the fountain…”
“I’ve personally introduced this tradition to at least 50 international students…”
“We leave before the cops come…”
This item was collected after prompting by the collector, though the informant’s status as a tour guide and the presence of a person besides the informant and collector led to the interview becoming more of a lecture on the history, symbolism, and current imagery surrounding the fountain.
This item was collected in an incredibly casual setting following dinner on a weekend night. It is difficult to imagine a time this would come up beyond either passing Showalter Fountain or when it is already a topic of discussion. Additionally, the informant’s position as a tour guide for IU contributed greatly to the format of this interview, as this particular informant possessed much more information about the history of the fountain than subsequent interviews possessed.
This interview provides a good baseline for subsequent interviews. While the informant clearly possessed some IU-sanctioned knowledge about the fountain, most of her personal experience involved either performing the tradition of climbing into the fountain herself or carrying on the tradition by introducing it to a new class of IU students. This presents an interesting conundrum. The tradition is told in a way that is very much “against the man,” but it is a widely known tradition that campus authorities are clearly aware of. For example, if the informant’s hypothesis about the water in the fountain still being drained is true, it shows a clear awareness by campus authorities about student activities. On the other hand, police response for climbing in the fountain would indicate an almost cat-and-mouse style game between campus and the students. As long as the students can get away with their crime, campus won’t crack down on it.