In the fall of 1986, Walter Palmer’s life as a Dartmouth College student began—like generations of students before him—with a trek into the woods.

Palmer and his new classmates headed to Mount Moosilauke, 40 miles from the Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S., campus. They hiked through the pines, swapped stories, and sang songs at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge—all part of one of the college’s time-honored traditions. The Dartmouth Outing Club’s First-Year Trips give students a chance to bond, and many alumni say it set the foundation for their college experience.

“These traditions are important touch points. They echo back through the generations,” says Palmer, director of the Dartmouth for Life programs.

At Dartmouth (and many universities, colleges, and schools), traditions bring communities together. They build alumni identity and connections. But the pandemic has disrupted the ways campus communities gather, cancelling or changing traditions that were rooted in years of history. Where do traditions stand, in times of change?

Here, advancement professionals and higher education researchers share why traditions endure, how they shift, and what role advancement today plays in celebrating and shaping them.

HITTING THE TRAIL: Dartmouth Outing Club trip leader Roger Brown leads new Dartmouth College students on a hike in 1946. The club’s First-Year Trips date back to the 1930s.

Credit: Dartmouth College

History and Connections

From orientation to homecoming and all the activities in between, campuses are “hotbeds for expressive traditions,” says Simon Bronner, a folklorist and dean of the College of General Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S. In his 2011 book, College Traditions, Bronner defines traditions as connections “to the past, to people, to place,” or the objects, beliefs, events, and practices within a campus community.

Traditions take many forms, from festivals to fight songs sung at sporting events to late-night exam week feasts. Some date back centuries (graduation ceremonies were first held in 12th century Europe) or decades, like the first U.S. homecoming football games in the 1910s. Activities may vary, but they’re anchored in an institution’s organizational culture—its shared values and environment, points out Maria Gallo, founder and principal researcher at Keep in Touch Education. She’s worked with universities in Canada and across Europe and says “the importance of ritual and tradition are just the same” at institutions older and newer, around the globe.

Traditions take root because they help students grapple with transition and change, and find a sense of belonging, says Bronner. Smaller liberal arts schools often emphasize this sense of community, but it’s just as important at larger institutions too.

Students “can get lost in that universe. They need connection to a community to make the university smaller,” Bronner says. “Folklore and traditions are an important part of that.”

What sets traditions apart from, say, habits or customs, are that they’re regarded with symbolic importance, and they emphasize “intergenerational connection,” Bronner says. That is, they’re passed on, creating common experiences that bridge past, present, and future. That’s where advancement comes in.