Traditions
There are many traditions at UNI, but perhaps none as popular as campaniling. The UNI campanile comes alive Friday night of Homecoming week each year. At the stroke of midnight, students flock around the tower to steal a kiss from a long-time lover or new acquaintance. This tradition began shortly after the tower was constructed in the 1920s. At that time, there were many more women on campus than men. It is said that a male student would call a random female student to meet him at the campanile. The male student would hide in the bushes and if he did not like what he saw, he would leave the girl waiting and go back and call another one instead. It was also "common knowledge" at one time that if a female student was never kissed during campaniling, she was not a true female. The campaniling tradition faded out over the decades but has since been revived with the efforts of the Alumni Association.
There is also a tradition of wearing purple on the Friday of Homecoming. The entire city of Cedar Falls is encouraged to show support for UNI, along with wearing "UNI: Purple For Life" buttons, or any others they have. It promotes a sense of unity and school pride in the community.
A more recent trend, The Interlude, is a dance that is performed to the band "Attack Attack!"'s song of the same name. The Interlude is an all inclusive dance that was started by a small group in the student section at basketball games during the 2010-2011 season. Many attempts at recreating The Interlude have popped up all over YouTube, and the dance has been featured on ESPN as well as regional media outlets, and was mentioned by First Lady Michelle Obama in her May, 2011 commencement speech at UNI.
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Famous quotes containing the word traditions:
“... the more we recruit from immigrants who bring no personal traditions with them, the more America is going to ignore the things of the spirit. No one whose consuming desire is either for food or for motor-cars is going to care about culture, or even know what it is.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“But generally speaking philistinism presupposes a certain advanced state of civilization where throughout the ages certain traditions have accumulated in a heap and have started to stink.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“I think a Person who is thus terrifyed [sic] with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)