IUB freshman induction a tradition that began in 1933

By Rose McIlveen

Photo provided by IU Archives
The Spirit of Indiana
Catherine Feltus of Bloomington, draped in white on the steps of the Student Building in Bloomington, was the Spirit of Indiana at the1934 freshman induction ceremony. She later studied at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse and appeared on screen as Catherine Craig in supporting roles that included Here Come the Waves, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (with Kirk Douglas) and You Were Never Lovelier (with Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire). In 1941 she married the actor Robert Preston, whose most famous role was Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man on Broadway. IU President William Lowe Bryan is shown below the Indiana flag.

IU President William Lowe Bryan would ask the freshmen to take an oath. They were asked to 'strive always to quicken among my fellows the sense of social and civic duty.'

A formal induction ceremony for freshmen was the brain child of George Schlafer, a professor in the Department of Physical Education. The year was 1933.

In those days the event was called the Induction and Allegiance Ceremony and was staged in front of the Student Building in Bloomington. The university pulled out all of the stops--the chimes and University Band summoning the freshmen to come there. Faculty gathered in their academic robes. There was one other feature, the “Spirit of Indiana.”

The spirit --usually a theater major--recited a prepared speech about gathering the freshmen into the family of IU:

“Make the most of the opportunities while here; acquaint yourselves with the best traditions of the University; contribute to them; thus leaving, at your departure, a greater University, richer in tradition than it was when you entered it--such is the law of progress. All that has been and all that is of the spirit of Indiana University welcomes you unreservedly.”

IU President William Lowe Bryan would quote from a speech he had first delivered in 1916, Patriotism for Indiana. “I am for those who see our University as it is with all its wrinkles and scars, and who therefore also know it at its best--its resolute integrity, its unworded oath of allegiance to the whole truth, its century of path-making for the children of the wilderness toward the fullness of civilized life, its passion for a clean and just democracy.”

The president asked the new freshmen to take an oath.

“I will not disgrace the University from which I have received my education by any act of disloyalty or cowardice. I will fight for its best interests whether I stand alone or have the support of others. I will revere and preserve its ideals and traditions, and will incite like reverence in others. I will strive always to quicken among my fellows the sense of social and civic duty. I will cherish the sacred institutions of my country. In all these ways will I strive to transmit this our heritage not less but greater and better than it was transmitted unto us.”

The ceremony ended with the singing of Hail to Old I.U.