Traditions
All-College Day
This long-standing campus tradition occurs the day after end in the spring term as a way to celebrate the semester and anticipate summer. Food, live music, and games are followed by a Midnight Breakfast.
Midnight Breakfast
Held before the Lafayette-Lehigh football game in November and after All-College Day in May, Midnight Breakfast is extremely popular. Up to 1,000 students are served by professors, administrators, staff, and coaches.
Block pARTy
Celebrated each fall before a home football game, the annual Block pARTy showcases the arts on campus with performances by campus dance teams, bands, and choral groups. Hundreds of people from the campus community attend, sampling food and checking out booths hosted by student organizations.
1,000 Nights
The 1,000 Nights formal is for first-year students only, signifying the roughly 1,000 more days until graduation. It was inspired by the 100 Nights formal held each spring for seniors that marks the number of days until Commencement.
Rivalry Week
No football game is more anticipated than the one against Lehigh, the most-played football rivalry in the nation. The game always sells out months in advance and has inspired a book and a documentary narrated by the late Harry Kalas. Activities often include a pep rally, class spirit competitions, concerts, and the Midnight Breakfast.
Presidential Ball
This formal dance at the beginning of the fall semester brings together students, alumni, trustees, faculty, and administrators for a sophisticated evening of live music and food.
Lafapalooza
Each year, students, faculty, staff, and alumni serve communities across the nation on the annual National Day of Service. Alumni chapters perform outreach in their areas, too.
Singing of the Alma Mater
The longstanding College tradition of singing on the steps of Old Pardee has been revived by The Graduates, a choir of College alumni and goodwill ambassadors. Candle-carrying spectators walk to Pardee for a rousing singalong during Alumni Reunion.
View and share photos on Flickr
Hear the alma mater and read the lyrics
Student Blogs
- Summertime….oh wait, not for me hahaha May 14, 2012I want to start off by saying that I feel as if I should be on summer vacation! I can’t believe that everyone is pretty much off school and I have two more months to go. That being said I am happy that I have two more months with an extremely talented bunch of individuals. […]Brandi Porter
- Reflections on Madrid May 9, 2012The semester is almost over here in Madrid. The last exams are on Wednesday, but my last one was on Friday, and I’m flying out tomorrow. The finals went pretty well for me, and I’ve had a great last two weeks here in Madrid. Now that it’s time to leave, I can look back and […]Isaac Lavine
- Looking Back: Helgoland – The Fondest Memory May 3, 2012Sometimes, you lose track of important things. And sometimes, those things come back to mind at the most unexpected moments. During our last German Politics and Culture lecture today, we were asked to fill out an evaluation on the school-organized excursions we went on over the course of the semester. One of the questions was, […]Max