Seniors gave up hazing freshmen in order to wash their feet

by Krissy Proctor
Copy editor

They are crowded together like sheep led to the slaughter. Filing into the dimly lit dining hall, silent and confused, the Senior Class firmly suggests that each freshman take a seat at one of the rounded tables, chairs strangely facing outwards.

New students begin to have a sinking feeling as they realize what is coming.

They were all wrong.

For some, like freshman Ted Woolsey (known as Tex) this doesn’t make a difference.

“No way, no how that was going to happen,” he  said Monday. “I do not want any guy touching my feet. Ever. I left.”

Others like Jessica Slade were shocked, but ultimately delighted.

“I thought it was really neat…I was very much caught off guard at first, but I thought it was pretty cool that the seniors were willing to humble themselves that way for us,” she said.

Whether students find it touching or terrible, the freshman foot-washing ceremony has become something of a campus tradition in the past few years. However, it hasn’t always been a Bryan custom.

“Back in my day, one of the very first things they did when you walked in the door was hand you a little red and gold beanie thing and you were required to wear it all the time…outside your dorm for several weeks,” said John Carpenter, assistant professor of journalism and student from 1979 to 1983. “We thought it was just terrible.”

According to Carpenter, freshmen were also taken to downtown Dayton during orientation and required to do service projects, much like what is done today by all students for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, along with several other class projects – all while wearing the beanies. Those caught not wearing them could face harassment from upperclassman, who considered it their sworn duty to enforce the policy.

“But it turned out to be a positive thing,” he said, smiling fondly. “They gave us a sense of identity- we always knew who else was in our class.”

As the years progressed, though, freshman initiation became rougher and more degrading. According to Dr. Peter Held, senior fellow for christian worldview and former vice president of the office of student life, hazing became a real problem during orientation.

“I came in ’94…and I remember thinking what a horrible thing it was,” he said. “There was this tradition of taking them out to Pocket Wilderness and pouring all kinds of nasty things on them – ketchup, honey – just to abuse them terribly.”

Held says things came to a head right before Tennessee passed a law in 1995 forbidding hazing on college campuses.

“On that occasion someone got the Dayton Fire Department out and as I recall they were locked in the tennis courts and hosed down. That’s when we just had to say ‘no more.’”

The current tradition was founded by what Held believes to be the senior class SGA of 1998,initiated by their class president Dave Mundy.

“He came to me and asked,’ What do you think about this instead?’ and I was so surprised and impressed. I said,’ Yeah you can do that and make it really significant.’”

Every senior class since has initiated preparation for the event, keeping it quiet from the new students as much as is possible. Faculty and students from other classes are politely discouraged from attending.

“It’s not intended to be a spectacle,” Held explained why he has only attended by invitation twice. “It’s the seniors stepping up to lead, saying this is what we’ve learned here at Bryan, let us serve you.”