How about a \"new\" tradition?

[Diamond Girl]

MS: That's exactly why the Mustang Band is the hub of SMU spirit!

[White Helmet]

abezonator, you forgot the last half "but only if you want to...and you better want to."

[MustangStealth]

How about public floggings for students who wear shirts/hats from other schools? If UT is soooooo awesome, why don't you go there? If you can get in to SMU, you can get in to UT.

We could also play subliminal messages in all the dorms while students are sleeping (so like 5 am to 3 pm). "You love SMU...Texas bites...You are proud to be a Mustang...Boo orange boo white...Yay red yay blue..."

Or we could introduce the "Spirit Tazer."
"Muffy, are you going to the football thingy today?"
"No way Buffy, Neiman's is having a sale."
"But the Sigma Epsilon Chis totally need the spirit points!"
"And I totally need a new handbag. This one is like weeks old."
"What you totally need is this!" BZZZZZZZT

[couch 'em]

Sounds like Muffy needs to go to the 'you-know-what' baseball stadium.

[Spaz]

How about public floggings for students who wear shirts/hats from other schools? If UT is soooooo awesome, why don't you go there? If you can get in to SMU, you can get in to UT.

We could also play subliminal messages in all the dorms while students are sleeping (so like 5 am to 3 pm). "You love SMU...Texas bites...You are proud to be a Mustang...Boo orange boo white...Yay red yay blue..."

Or we could introduce the "Spirit Tazer."
"Muffy, are you going to the football thingy today?"
"No way Buffy, Neiman's is having a sale."
"But the Sigma Epsilon Chis totally need the spirit points!"
"And I totally need a new handbag. This one is like weeks old."
"What you totally need is this!" BZZZZZZZT

G-Damn brilliant....
Hey Why don't we just change our colors to Maroon and white and start goose-stepping all over campus? THAT sound like an idea?
Look, all this "Let's add new traditions" or "Let's do what another university does" is dumb, PERIOD.
Embrase what we have and get others into it as well. I don't know when having school spirit got to be unfashionable, but it's stupid.

[Diamond Girl]

My intention isn't to copy what some other school does but to try to find a way to get the kids involved.

There is a deplorable lack of spirit and tradition; unfortunately, it isn't just the students. Remember a few years ago when the administration suggested we get a new fight song and some yahoo from Meadows wrote one? Yea, that went over well. At least the band stuck to its guns and kept "Pony Battle."

If the leaders of the university don't have respect for school traditions, why should the students? On the university Web site, the words to "Pony Battle Cry" aren't even correct. Granted, they're close, but that isn't good enough. Also, the "Go Mustangs" cheer has changed slightly over the years. Originally, it was, "Go Red! Fight Blue! Win Mustangs!" If there's going to be any sense of tradition, it has to include the little details.

[PK]

There is a deplorable lack of spirit and tradition...

Well, you are half right...there is a deplorable lack of spirit (Mustang Band excluded), but there is no lack of tradition...only a lack of upholding it. There is plenty of SMU tradition out there, just not enough spirit around to maintain it.

[Diamond Girl]

I stand corrected. Thanks, PK.

[PK]

No need to be embarassed Diamond Girl...I may have overstated my case. I'm sitting here trying to think of what our traditions are...and I'm coming up blank. We never had big pep rallies that I recall or bonfires. The only "tradition" that comes to mind is that back when I was a student in the mid-sixties, students actually went to the games...the games were at the Cotton Bowl (not on campus) and the student section was always jam packed...hell the guys even wore ties and sports coats to the games (it was a different era for sure). Peruna has been a constant...and we didn't need someone dressed up like a horse to feel like we had a mascot...the real Peruna was good enough. I guess knowing and actually singing the fight song would be a tradition that has been neglected. Perhaps another would be large groups of students actually making trips to out of town games. I remember driving all the way to Lubbock (seemed like it took forever) to watch us play Tech, and there were lots of others that did the same thing. That was a great game...big thunder storm with hail...everyone but the SMU Band headed for cover while the band played on...ankle deep water in the parking lot after the game. Things like that make for great memories and I'm not sure today's students will have anything like that to remember. Of course back then, being in the SWC, we had great rivalries and we would try to steal or some how leave a mark on the other teams' mascots. A&M back then was not coed and the aggies would come in a try to get dates with our coeds or bring dates down from TWU in Denton. Going to the games was a big social event with dates and all. So anyway, maybe some others can remind me of the traditions we have/had.

BTW, I think tailgating on the Vard is a great addition to our traditions along with the band marching down the Vard to the stadium.

[Diamond Girl]

Golly, PK, there seem to be several relatively new tradtions - the blvd., Mane Event, Mustang Corral, Mustangs 11, Rotunda Passage. Celebration of Lights has been around since I was there ('79-'85), but all the others are post - '90. The band has all sorts of traditions, including Pigskin Review at Homecoming, but many of these have been modified since '85. Maybe MrMustang1965 has some insights from when his dad was at SMU.

[MustangStealth]

If the leaders of the university don't have respect for school traditions, why should the students? On the university Web site, the words to "Pony Battle Cry" aren't even correct. Granted, they're close, but that isn't good enough.

I saw last year's yearbook over the weekend and it has another gem: a picture caption about people singing our alma mater, "Victory." Is this the same people who write the DC? What a bunch of jack-[deleted].

[Bergermeister]

Surely, someone on the University payroll has "protect, promote, encourage traditions" at SMU in their job description. There were bonfires and pep rallies at one time, send-offs at Union Station, welcome home rallies at Love Field, Pigskin Revue that ran several nights to a full house at McFarlin, Homecoming Dances at Fair Park. These were events/opportunities for everyone to participate. Obviously, the Greeks and other campus organizations had their own events and parties, but many of these were spirit related... mainly to football but not solely. Many of us have fond memories of these types of "school" activities. A lot of today's SMU students are missing out on a fun part of the college experience. Too many cynics. It's not all the students' fault, though. There's no leadership. I don't expect things to be the same as they were "back in th' day", but it seems nobody has come up with anything better so we wallow in a quagmire of apathy in search of direction.
P.S. don't call me shirley.

[Diamond Girl]

That would be great to be able to incorporate some of these "older" traditions in with the newer ones. I wonder if there's anything the new dean of student life can do. What causes me some concern, however, is nowhere in the department of student life's mission statement does it mention instilling a sense of tradition into the student experience
(www.smu.edu/studentlife).

[jtstang]

The biggest problem is that apathy itself has been a tradition at SMU, at least since I was there in the mid-80s. Sad, but true.

[couch 'em]

Many students and most professors have little respect for anything labeled 'tradition'. They just don't think it is very intellectual. Much like my spelling.