Carnegie Mellon University is home to a variety of unique traditions, some of which date back to the early days of its over 100-year history. Many of these traditions hearken to the university's strength in engineering, such as the buggy races and the mobots, while others are purely social in nature, such as Spring Carnival and The Fence.
Alma Mater
The alma mater of Carnegie Mellon University was written by Charles J. Taylor and set to music by J. Vick O'Brien when the university was still named Carnegie Institute of Technology. The song was copyrighted by the institute in 1924.
While not used as much as alma maters at some other universities, its alma mater plays a vital role in the culture and history of Carnegie Mellon University. It is sung at convocation ceremonies of incoming classes, commencement ceremonies of graduating classes, and other official events such as the investiture of new presidents. The university's Kiltie Band plays it at certain home games.
The full song has three verses. Normally, only the first verse is performed.
Verses
First Verse
The first verse references the history of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where the university is located. In the late-18th Century, after the United States won its independence, the settlement at the present city of Pittsburgh was known as the frontier and the Gateway to the West. The verse describes the wilderness through which the westward-bound settlers traversed to reach their goal. The verse concludes with the proud allusion that Carnegie Mellon was founded by Andrew Carnegie.
Second Verse
The second verse begins with Pittsburgh's role at the nation's inception. It references the history of the labor movement through the Antebellum Era and Gilded Age. Upon its founding in 1900, Andrew Carnegie had intended the university to be a vocational school for the children of the workers in his steel mills. As the university progressed, it embraced the arts as exemplified by the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, the first degree-granting program in the country, while continuing to focus on its technical and scientific education. The university maintains a strong collaborative culture among its constituent colleges ranging from the arts to the sciences.
Third Verse
The last verse references the university's dedication to academic excellence and high-quality teaching, alluding to its continued pursuit of collecting and disseminating knowledge.
The Fence
The first great tradition at Carnegie Mellon is The Fence, built in 1923, which lies in the middle of the Cut. The Fence frequently displays witty or poignant messages, but is just as often used to advertise upcoming events or recent accomplishments. Because of its highly visible location on campus, it is an ideal place to proclaim one's message to as much of the student body as possible. The original wooden fence was replaced in 1993 when it collapsed under its own weight due to six inches of surrounding paint. At the time, it held the Guinness World Record for being the most painted object. Today, a concrete and steel reinforced fence stands where the original one stood, imitating the size it would be today. Students still paint the fence in an effort to break the record held by the original as the world's most painted upon object. the fence has four inches of paint.
The Fence's origins date back to the early days of Carnegie Institute of Technology when The Cut was still a valley that separated the Carnegie Tech buildings from the Margaret Morrison women's school. Over the valley spanned a bridge which the men of Carnegie Tech realized was a strategic spot for meeting the women of Maggie Mo as they crossed the cut. However, when The Cut was filled in to form the current-day grassy field, the bottleneck disappeared. In its stead, the class of 1923 erected a fence to stand in as a meeting spot. However, the university's students took a negative view of the structure, not understanding the point of it. The administration was just about to give up and tear it down when the night before its scheduled removal a fraternity painted The Fence in the middle of the night, advertising a party on campus. The party turned out to be a huge success, as has the tradition of painting the fence. The administration relented on their plans for removing the fence.
In August 2008, the graduating class of 2008 at the Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Campus brought the tradition to California by installing their own version of the fence, and dedicating it to Randy Pausch, who died in that year.