NYU hazing by trough

Halloween night, 1900, on the University Heights campus, torch-bearing upperclassmen gleefully surrounded freshmen. Shivering and dressed in pajamas, the freshmen awaited their fate: a Halloween baptism in a giant watering trough.

That night began a tradition of dunking freshmen into a granite watering trough, called the fountain of knowledge, as the culmination of the two-week freshmen hazing period.

Once dunked and forced to run through a barrage of swinging paddles the freshmen were considered official sons of NYU, according to university archive documents.

“What license have you to be a member of New York University?” said Chief Interrogator Jasper Connell of the class of 1907.

“I am a sober, unassuming youth. I have a massive brain. I am the only child in the family. And when I take hold of my father’s fortune I will give New York University a fund for the payment of all assessments that are levied by the money-grasping Athletic Association and class organizations. Furthermore —,” said Herbert Friedburg, cut short as his head was shoved underwater, according to the 1907 Violet yearbook.

A sporting class rivalry, hazing and competition would continue for many decades. In 1937, some freshmen were avenged when they captured senior class President Artie Schoen and dunked him into the trough.

But a few years later, the baptismal hazing had become a friendly tradition and social event. Freshmen advertised the event, posting flyers around the city. Some invited their girlfriends to observe the ceremony. Afterwards all four classes met at Lawrence Hall for coffee, doughnuts and dancing.

After receiving anxious freshmen heads for 60 years, the trough was moved from its original home on Sedgwick Avenue to the mall of the Heights Campus in 1959. It was moved again in 1973 when the Heights Campus was closed, according to archive documents.

Currently, the trough is in storage. University archive documents indicate that the trough may be reborn as a planter near the Jeffrey S. Gould Welcome Center. University spokesman John Beckman confirmed that the trough was still in storage, but said that he did not know of any intended uses for it.

“There have been conversations — particularly among alums from NYU’s Heights Campus — about raising funds and finding a place for it on campus, though I am not sure about the specific use,” Beckman said in an e-mail.



Kelly Roberts is a staff writer. E-mail her at flashback@nyunews.com.

Comments

2 comments

Elizabeth Pimentel Heights ' 71

Mon Nov 17 2008 14:22

Thank you for keeping the memory of the Ducking Trough alive by running your article. For the record, members of the Heights Steering Committee of the NYU College Alumni Association have met with the landscape architect and others involved in planning the upcoming renovations to the campus. Our wish to have the trough restored and installed not as a plantar, but as something more akin to its original use as a trough, is being seriously considered as part of the renovations. To date we have already raised a substantial sum of money toward this end from alumni, and are still accepting donations. Anyone interested in helping to preserve this part of NYU's history should contact Ann Marie Ladisa, Senior Director of Alumni Relations, Arts and Science, at cas.alumni@nyu.edu.
Elizabeth Pimentel Heights '71
Chair, Heights Steering Committee
NYU College Alumni Association

Jerry S. Goldman

Mon Nov 10 2008 07:06

Considering that at the traditional University commencements students jump into the fountain at Washington Square Park, the trough's historic use is certainly understandable.

At a University which laments the 'lack' of traditions and iconic symbols of our values, all we have to do is look and see what, in fact, we've done in the past, in order to recreate our future.

Jerry S. Goldman
Former Chair, CAS Alumni
Heights '73

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