The Pull of the Pole

The center post at the College gates has been a focal point for both superstition and initiation.

Recent alumni report that, going through the gates--especially around exam time--they would touch the weathered stone pole for luck. "I found myself touching the stone every time I passed," wrote Grace Culbertson '05, "even though I was sure it had been peed on fairly regularly."

For older alumni, the central pole is indelibly linked to the indignities inflicted on freshmen--hazing-like rules that pre-date World War II. There were required caps and beanies. There was a "pajama parade night," when the first-years were forced to crawl in a line while singing "There Is a Hell for Freshmen." And there was the leapfrog: all freshmen had to leap, spread-legged, overthe post whenever they went through the College gates.

It doesn't look forbiddingly tall, this post. But it's anatomically evocative, a sturdy, stumpy, vaguely uncomfortable reminder of one's own softer parts. Kenyon men made sure to aim high, so as to avoid collisions with what came to be known as the Scrotum Pole.

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