Don’t drink, don’t strip naked at university events, what do you do?

I had not expected to see the headline A Dionysian End to Summer in Inside Higher Ed , but we live in strange times:

Smith College rings in the new academic year in a most revealing way. Still, administrators worry that its students may not be putting their best foot forward. As a result, the institution has curbed what some consider lewd student behavior at a popular academic event.



The college’s annual opening convocation — attended by nearly the entire study body and a smattering of faculty — is more rock concert than it is somber academic ceremony. Students shout and scream at the acknowledgement of their year or residence by invited speakers, who often strain to be heard above the roar of the audience. Although some faculty still choose to wear formal academic regalia to the festivity, it is safe to say that some students leave the college’s dress code behind for this time-honored celebration of the new academic year.



Of the more interesting traditions at the women’s college, some students have taken to attending the event in somewhat, if not fully, revealing attire. While some students and faculty at Smith consider this an outward expression of the college’s free and welcoming nature, others are less than thrilled about being subjected to the nudity of their fellow classmates or pupils. The growing exhibitionism of students at convocation in recent years and a mounting number of complaints from both students and faculty led administrators to curb this year’s event. Now, following this year’s more subdued convocation, debate simmers among the college as to how and if this tradition should continue. [ more more more ]

Compared to most official college events, Smith’s tradition is an embarrassing one, but that’s not the relevant comparison. Considering the ways that college students usually pursue Dionysus — vodka, hook-ups both meaningful and less so, parties that fail to create any kind of spontaneous fellowship — their Convocation sounds glorious. I approve. If anyone has a Ouija board we can ask Socrates what he thinks of it, but I have a hunch what he’d say.