One of the benefits of going to an old university is that students here at Notre Dame inherit all the traditions developed by previous generations. However, time and legal disputes have eroded several traditions that used to be central parts of our Notre Dame community. Many of these have been completely forgotten, but all it takes is some enthusiasm and commitment from the student body to bring them back. Without further ado, here are five Notre Dame traditions that I think deserve a return.
1. AnTostal: Many students still recognize AnTostal as a season of fun events and community engagement. Each spring, the Student Union Board chooses a theme and organizes giveaways and family-friendly activities for a week of spring celebration. But the AnTostal we see today is unrecognizable from the wild ride that used to be the festival through the nineties. Picture ziplines, chariot races, tug-of-war in mudpits, tricycle races and other ludicrous events of general tomfoolery. Now, the events of AnTostal are very tame, limited to one or two per day, and they face low turnouts every year.
This iconic festival died down thirty years ago because of a combination of liability concerns amongst campus officials and loss of participation around campus. While there isn’t much that we can do about campus officials being lame, a lot of the hype, funding and anticipation around AnTostal is under our control. The more students participate in the planning and execution of AnTostal events, the closer we can get to its original hype.
2. The Campus Bar: Legends of Notre Dame used to be the Alumni-Senior Club, which was run entirely by students. Instead of heading to the downtown South Bend bar scene on the weekends, students used to regularly visit the campus-run bar. This helped students avoid the issue of either constantly spending money on rides home or making the unsafe decision to walk home after a night out.
Legends is now seen as a hangout for alumni and older members of the campus community. Uber is available to us now, but wouldn’t it be great if the most popular bar for students was right around the corner? It takes a lot of effort and participation from students to make bars like this one a campus tradition. To make it happen, I encourage seniors to attend the Senior Social this Thursday at Legends.
3. Dorm Partnerships and Rivalries: Here’s another event that was shut down by authorities over concerns about liability. Rivalries and dorm partnerships used to run deep at Notre Dame. Back when Grace and Flanner Hall were still residence halls, they hosted an annual weeklong “war” against one another, hurling insults and bottle rockets back and forth. Brother and sister dorms hosted many successful events and stayed in permanent partnerships rather than rotating every year as they do now.
There’s not much students can do about the administration cracking down on, say, the use of bottle rockets on campus. But higher participation in dorm events, partnerships and dorm pride seems like a reasonable ask.
4. Real SYRs: These annual themed dorm dances used to really live up to their names, with SYR standing for “Screw Your Roommate.” Students used to set up unknown dance dates for their roommates and friends. This practice has since become history, probably due to students feeling awkward about going to dances with strangers, but this hilarious tradition deserves a return! To bring the tradition back, get all your single friends together and commit to finding dates for one another. It’s not as awkward if everyone does it.
5. Trumpets Under the Dome: When I was eight years old and my dad took me to my first Notre Dame football game, my favorite part of the whole event was seeing the trumpets play the alma mater and fight song around the railings inside the Main Building. The echoing sound, the synchronized movements and the ring of golden bells circling the painting at the top of the Dome were nothing short of enchanting to me. In fact, I genuinely think that the excitement I felt when I saw that fanfare factored into my decision to enroll. For some unexplained reason, the trumpets have been playing outside the Dome, rather than under it, even after Covid-19 distancing restrictions ended. I’m not sure why this is the case, but I was disappointed to hear about it. This one is, of course, entirely out of students’ control, but please, Notre Dame, bring back the trumpets under the Dome.
Rose is a senior from Buffalo, NY with majors in economics and the Program of Liberal Studies. Her writing interests include ethics, campus culture and the intersection of economics, politics and philosophy. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading on the 10th floor of the library, losing intramural basketball games or working at the Law School. You can contact Rose by email at rquiniaz@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
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