User:Yeongwoh/StudentLife
Student life
[edit]Carnegie Mellon's student life includes over 225 student organizations, art galleries, and various unique traditions. Student organizations provide social, service, media, academic, spiritual, recreational, sport, religious, political, cultural, and governance opportunities. Carnegie Mellon's campus houses several galleries such as The Frame, a student-devoted gallery, and the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, an art gallery that specializes in contemporary professional artists. The Carnegie Mellon School of Music, Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and the student-run theatrical organization Scotch'n'Soda provides campus with a variety of world-class performance arts events. The university has a strong Scottish motif inspired by Andrew Carnegie's Scottish heritage, as well as the Mellon family's Scots-Irish ancestry. Examples include Scotty, the Scottish Terrier mascot, The Tartan student newspaper, Skibo Gymnasium, The Thistle yearbook, and the Céilidh weekend every fall semester for homecoming.
Traditions
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- The Fence – In the early days of Carnegie Tech, there was a single bridge which connected Margaret Morrison Women's College with the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The bridge was a meeting place for students. In 1916, the bridge was taken down and the university filled in the area. The administration built a wooden fence as a new meeting place. The students did not understand why anyone would want to meet at a fence. Administration was about to give up and tear it down but that night a fraternity, as a prank, painted the entire fence advertising a fraternity party. Ever since, painting the Fence has been a Carnegie Mellon tradition.[1] The Fence at Carnegie Mellon lies at the center of campus, in the area known as "the Cut." Students guard the fence 24 hours a day, and, as long as two vigils are maintained, no other student may "take" the fence. The fence can then be painted by the group that has it, but only between midnight and 6 am. Only hand brushes may be used; the use of spray paint or paint rollers is considered vandalism and results in a fine. The previous paint cannot be stripped, and each new painting adds a new layer. The original wooden fence finally collapsed in the 1990s due to the weight from over 1' of surrounding paint, and was immediately replaced with an identical one manufactured from concrete. Today the fence is considered "the world's most painted object," by the Guinness Book of World Records.
- Spring Carnival – Usually held in April, Spring Carnival is the biggest event of the school year. In addition to classic carnival attractions, the Spring Carnival features the "Buggy Sweepstakes" and "Booth" (a competition between various organizations to build small, elaborate booths based on a theme chosen each year). Furthermore, Spring Carnival is accompanied by the Spring Carnival concert which has featured artists such as Matt and Kim in 2015 and Mac Miller in 2014.[2]
- Buggy Races – Buggy, officially called Sweepstakes, is a race around Schenley Park. It can be thought of as a relay race with five runners, using the buggy vehicle as the baton. Entrants submit a small, usually torpedo-shaped, vehicle that is pushed uphill and then allowed to roll downhill. The vehicles are unpowered, including the prohibition of such energy-storing devices as flywheels. They are, however, steered by a driver who is usually a petite female student lying prone, arms stretched forward to steer via a turning mechanism. Space is so tight inside the buggies that the drivers usually cannot change position beyond turning their heads.
- Mobot – "Mobot,' a portmanteau for "mobile robot," is an annual competition at Carnegie Mellon that made its debut in 1994. In this event, robots try (autonomously) to pass through gates, in order, and reach the finish line. There is a white line on the pavement connecting the gates, and the line is normally used to find the gates, though it is not mandated by the rules that the robots follow the line.
- Bagpipers – As one of only a handful of colleges offering a bachelor's degree in bagpipe music and the only to offer a Masters, Carnegie Mellon University's Pipes and Drums features the sounds of Scottish bagpipes and performs at University events. Director of the Pipes and Drums is champion piper Andrew Carlisle from Northern Ireland, a highly decorated solo piper and longtime member of nine times World Pipe Band Champions Field Marshal Montgomery. The ensemble actively competes at Highland Games in Grade Three in the Eastern United States.
- The Kiltie Band- Carnegie Mellon's Kiltie Band, dressed in full Scottish regalia including kilts and knee socks, performs during every home football game.
- Autographing the Green Room – Seniors in the College of Fine Arts sign the Green Room's walls and ceilings before leaving the university. Supposedly, Oscar-winning actress Holly Hunter broke university tradition by signing the Green Room during her freshman year. With the construction of the Purnell Center in 1998 the School of Drama no longer occupied the old Green Room, so this tradition has gone away.
Housing
[edit]Carnegie Mellon offers conventional housing for its students through single-gender, coeducational, and special interest options. Students can choose from a variety of housing options. The three options for first-year students are standard, prime, and apartment-style living. Standard is a typical college dormitory setting, a long hallway with a series of double (two people to a room). Prime offers more privacy through suite-style rooms. Apartment-style living is available through the Residence on Fifth and Shirley apartments. Upperclassmen have additional options for housing which include town houses and a larger variety of one or two bedroom apartments. There are 20 residential buildings on campus and five off campus in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh.[3]
First-year students are assigned to the dedicated first-year residence halls on campus including: Morewood E-Tower, Residence on Fifth, Shirley Apartments, as well as Boss, Donner, Hamerschlag, McGill, Mudge, Scobell, and Stever houses. Approximately a third of upperclassmen choose to continue living on campus through university housing. Options for upperclassmen include: Morewood Gardens, West Wing, Doherty, Fairfax, Margaret Morrison, Neville, Shady Oak, Shirley, and Woodlawn Apartments as well as Henderson, Resnik, Roselawn, Spirit, Tech, Webster, and Welch houses.[3]
Fraternities and sororities
[edit]The Greek tradition at Carnegie Mellon University began over 100 years ago with the founding of the first fraternity on campus, Theta Xi, in 1912. The Panhellenic sorority community was founded in 1945, by Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma. The Chi Omega chapter at Carnegie Mellon transformed into an independent sorority, Zeta Psi Sigma, and has since become Alpha Chi Omega. There is one Asian American interest sorority – alpha Kappa Delta Phi (colony), and one Asian American interest fraternity - Lambda Phi Epsilon.
Currently, Carnegie Mellon University has fifteen active fraternities:[4]
Furthermore, Carnegie Mellon University has 10 active sororities:
In addition to participating in campus traditions such as Buggy and Booth, the fraternities and sororities hold an annual fundraiser called Greek Sing, one of the largest Greek events of the year. Each year, the organizations vote on a cause to support and raise money through ticket sales, ad sales, corporate sponsorships and donations. Each organization performs a 13-minute long original show or a rendition of a popular show. In Spring 2010, Greek Sing raised over $42,000 for St. Jude Children's Research
- ^ "Walking Tour". cmu.edu. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
- ^ "Carnegie Mellon Spring Carnival 2015 | CMU Carnival Official Site". cmucarnival.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
- ^ a b "CMU Housing". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
- ^ "CMU Greek Chapters". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved November 16, 2015.