Tribal Culture in Cambridge – Alcoholism and Academia
What’s so different about Cambridge? Well, last friday I could observe a ritual which showed me why Cambridge students are like they are.
The ritual is called Super Hall. It takes place at Trinity Hall (my college) in the evening. Unlike Graduate Hall, which is very formal and involves gowns, Super Hall is celebrated wearing Smart Casual (which is a suit for me – unfortunately, Jeans are not allowed even though they are the essence of casualnessity). The food is called Tagliatelle with Smoked Salmon & Dill and Escalope of Turkey Saltinbocca (a fancy name for salmon pasta and turkey steak) and was quite delicious.
I was a few minutes late, so I received disaproving looks by Joseph. I don’t know his complete job title, but during Dining Halls he directs the kitchen staff and makes sure that everything is in order. During Super Halls, he delivers so-called “fines”. Joseph bangs on a large bell, waits till everybody is quit and reads out the content of small slips of papers given to him by the students, saying “I fine the second-year student who had sex in the library” and other interesting revelations. The targeted person then gets up, downs his glass of wine and sits down accompagnied by the cheers and jowls of his fellow classmates.
People are fined for everything. I was fined for putting whiskey into my tea (don’t ask) and for being late at rowing practice. Needless to say that these rituals get into people’s heads. If you are still sober afterwards, the next turn is the College Bar. Surely, it is possible to enjoy a quite beer there, isn’t it?
Well, not really. British students invented the fine tradition of Pennying. The tradition goes that the Queen should be save at all times. If someone puts a penny (which has the Queen’s lovely silhouette on one side) in your glass, you have to empty it as fast as possible before the “Queen drowns”.
On a more serious note, I think these rituals help a lot to shape a College Identity. With several thousands students in Cambridge, the Colleges and the hundreds of societies help to get to know people. It’s amazing how through parties, formal receptions, scarfs, traditions, sports etc a strong sense of group identity is created. There is a tight network of support, from your academic supervisor in your department to your graduate tutor at College.
The activities of the Graduate Students in the first weeks are amazing to get to know people. Cook-outs and pub crawls, tea afternoons and port-sessions. The architecture of the graduate accomodations help to get people to know each other very well very soon – simply because you run across them all the time. Last night I went with three other graduate students to see the new Disney Movey Ratatouille which is well worth seeing.
Back to the College System at Cambridge: the Colleges are like small tribes. They all have their chiefs – normally called the Master of College. But then there is a plethora of smaller Chiefs, Senior somethings, Presidents, Vice-presidents, Head of this and Head of that. The same in the student organisations and academic departments: Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Under-Secretary. Hierarchies carefully defined. They all have their well-developed rituals. And sometimes, just sometimes, these rituals are fueled with a little bit of alcohol.
