"Folklore of Student Life" holds the accumulated wisdom and wit of several IU undergraduate classes and of a good many IU undergraduates, all focused upon the folklore -- those shared avenues of creativity and expression -- that is part of the college experience at Indiana University. This website is a joint production of Prof John McDowell and his students in a number of undergraduate classes
Text 2 Contributor: Lindsey B Informant: Jon Arrivo Title: Rituals in Fraternity Life Semester, Year: Fall 2005 J.A. Umm, let me think. Well, a couple years back they started this thing called 40’s at 4. The brothers all get together Continue Reading …
For the ethnography collection, my group decided to divide up so we could research party songs, fraternity songs, or sports songs or chants. I chose to research party songs. I decided to interview five different people about party songs that Continue Reading …
Text 3 Contributor: Megan Colleen Hillier Informant: Kirstin Olson Title: Receiving a Son Semester/Year: Fall 2005 I had a mom’s night and my friend or whatever, the father—his name’s Sparky, or at least that’s what I call him. Uh—he was Continue Reading …
Game 3: Quarters Date Collected: April 12, 2008 Quarters is a drinking game which actually goes back many years. I observed this game for a few rounds and discovered this unofficial sport/game has a very simple, standard set of rules: Continue Reading …
Pugsly’s Response Received from David Roth, alias Pugsly: I was a music student at Indiana University School of Music in the late 70s and early 1980s. My interest in computers was sparked by using software that ran on the CDC Continue Reading …
In late August I was contacted by a reporter with a query about this campus legend: “I am a reporter with the IDS and am working on a story about the tree that the chemistry annex building was built around. Continue Reading …
Contributor: Lindsey Hughes Informant: Stephanie Smith (Pseudonym) Title of Text: “Proposal” Date of Text: First Semester, Oct. 31, 2005 (Halloween!!) Text (Interview) Interviewer: When did your boyfriend propose to you? Stephanie: He proposed on Halloween, before we went to our Continue Reading …
Sylvia’s cyber info Item 1: Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Link: http://www.iub.edu/~pbsei/welcome.html The Epsilon Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. at Indiana University Text: President’s Message As the 2007-2008 President of the Epsilon Iota Chapter (Indiana University) of Continue Reading …
Paul’s fraternity songs Item 1: The first song I found was a Fraternity Drinking song. The song comes from my own fraternity Alpha Tau Omega (ATO). This was taught to us on the first day of pledge ship. Ru Ra Continue Reading …
Item 4: Opium Board * Date: Fall of 2007 Location: Student’s apartment Informant: Anonymous *A note about discussion and interview in concerns of the opium board. As this art does deal with drug culture names have been changed for interviews. Continue Reading …