Jacki Donovan
Staff Writer
Outside Frazier Hall, the trees are in full bloom. Campus lots are beginning to fill up with out-of-state license plates as students in their caps and gowns take pictures in front of university signage. All this can only mean one thing, Bengals – it’s grad season once again.
This yearly exodus is a surreal, stressful few weeks for students, faculty and over-caffeinated staff writers alike. In light of this unique time of year, The Bengal has taken the liberty of reaching out to some of this year’s departing seniors for their perspective at the finish line, and for some advice on this period of transition.
The bottom line? Get involved on campus. “It’s a tough thing to avoid crowds at Idaho State,” laughed senior multiplatform journalism major Cody Rhatigan.
Across campus, more and more seniors confirmed this advice.
“Campus events helped me find my place here– OAC trips, open climb, spring events on the quad,” said Rylee Ellis, senior outdoor education major. “ISU is a very community-centered school.”
As Rhatigan succinctly puts it, “that FOMO will creep right up on you if you don’t take a chance and get out there.”
But it wasn’t always this way. Andrija Sevaljevic, a senior in ISU’s graduate computer science program, remembers a time when campus was a far less lively place.
“Compared to today, campus in the immediate post-COVID years, when I first arrived, was very uneventful,” recounted Sevaljevic. “Both the quality and attendance of events has gone up– the research symposium doubled in participants this year.”
I guess now would be a good time to mention the curse.
For years, Idaho State freshmen and seniors have bookended their time on campus by walking respectively into and out of Swanson Arch, in a gesture symbolic of all the progress and knowledge gained over the student’s years at ISU.
But make more than one round into or out of the arch, and, at least according to Ellis, you’re in trouble.
“I marched as a freshman, yeah,” confirmed Ellis, “but then back a year ago I walked back through, and now I can feel the curse… watch out, future seniors.”
From the sound of it, Rhatigan is now living curse-free, but just by the skin of his teeth.
“I marched on the way in, and then I took my grad pictures in the arch,” Rhatigan admitted. “But I didn’t walk the full path, so I think I’m good.”
But this was still all word-of-mouth. For some official insight on this tradition and possibly its accompanying curse, The Bengal spoke to executive director of alumni engagement Amy Dressel.
“The March through the Arch started in 2006, spearheaded by our director at the time, Valerie Watkins,” Dressel said. “That means this year will be the 20th march on the 125th anniversary of the university– and we expect it to be our biggest yet.”
Dressel continued to explain that March through the Arch is meant to bridge the gap in engagement between students and alumni pre-graduation, and that the Alumni Center rebukes any potential bad vibes.
“I haven’t heard anything about a curse on the arch,” Dressel said. “But I will say that you make your time at Idaho State what it is.”
This writer still isn’t convinced, but Dressel is absolutely right: there’s only one way to find something like this out, and as our seniors will tell you, it’s better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t.
“One of my few regrets at ISU is not marching,” expresses Sevaljevic. “These kinds of superstitions bring the community together.”