Princeton University

For other Princetons, see Princeton. Most of them are named after the University.

Traditions

• Arch Sings - Free late-night concerts in one of the larger arches on campus offered by one or a few of Princeton's fourteen a cappella groups. Most often held in Blair Arch or Class of 1879 Arch.
• Bonfire - ceremonial bonfire, held only if Princeton beats both Harvard and Yale at football in the same season.
• Beer Jackets - Each graduating class (and each class at its multiple-of-5 reunion thereafter -- 5th, 10th, etc.) designs a Beer Jacket featuring their class year. The artwork is almost invariably dominated by the school colors and tiger motifs.
• Bicker - Competitive new-member selection process employed by selective eating clubs
• Cane Spree - an athletic competition between freshmen and sophomores held in the fall
• The Clapper or Clapper Theft - climbing to the top of Nassau Hall and stealing the bell clapper so as to prevent the bell from ringing and, thus, from starting class on the first day of the school year. For safety reasons, the clapper has now been removed permanently.
• Communiversity - an annual street fair with performances, arts and crafts, and other activities, designed to foster interaction between the University and residents of the Princeton community
• Dean's Date Theater - tradition of gathering late in the afternoon on Dean's Date (see below under "Lingo") outside McCosh Hall to watch other students run to hand in their papers before the final deadline. Some students perform cartwheels and other antics (if they are not running too late).
• FitzRandolph Gate - at the end of Princeton's graduation ceremony, the new graduates process out through the main gate of the university as a symbol of their leaving college and entering the real world. According to tradition, anyone who leaves campus through FitzRandolph Gate before their own graduation date will not graduate (though entering through the gate is fine).
• Holder howl - students in Holder Hall dormitory are known to wail, bellow, and screech after studying for hours before finals
• Houseparties - formal parties thrown simultaneously by all of the eating clubs at the end of the spring term
• Lawnparties - parties with live bands thrown simultaneously by all of the eating clubs at the start of classes and conclusion of the year
• Newman's Day - students attempt to drink 24 beers in the 24 hours of April 24th, named after Paul Newman allegedly based on a quote from Paul: "24 hours in a day...24 beers in a case...Coincidence? I think not." Newman has spoken out against the tradition. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=825
• Nude Olympics - annual (nude) frolic in Holder Courtyard during the first snow of the winter. For safety and decency reasons, the administration banned the Olympics in 2001.
• Pong - Played mostly at Charter Club and Tower Club, a common drinking game played on a ping-pong table with paddles and cups of beer.
• Prospect 11 - referring to the act of drinking a beer at all eleven eating clubs on The Street in one night.
• P-rade - traditional parade of alumni and their families, organized by class year, during Reunions
• Reunions - annual gathering of alumni, held the weekend before graduation
• Robopound - commonly played team drinking game at Princeton University, thought to have originated there. Beirut is equally popular.
• The Phantom of Fine Hall - a former tradition - before 1993, this was the legend of an obscure, shadowy figure who would infest Fine Hall (the Mathematics department's building) and write complex equations on blackboards. Although mentioned in Rebecca Goldstein's 1980s book The Mind-Body Problem about Princeton graduate student life (Penguin, reissued 1993), the legend self-deconstructed in the 1990s when the Phantom turned out to be in reality the inventor, in the 1950s, of the Nash Equilibrium result in game theory, John Forbes Nash. The former Phantom, by then also haunting the computation center where courtesy of handlers in the math department he was a sacred monster with a guest account, shared the 1993 Nobel prize and is now a recognized member of the University community. The film and book A Beautiful Mind are a somewhat inaccurate recount of Nash's story.