Axe ’Em, Jacks!
Continued from "Traditions 'Neath the Purple and White" story
Weeks of Welcome offers students a chance to visit with all these groups at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters.
In the fall, this new tradition encompasses the Student Government Association's oldest-standing tradition: the Watermelon Bash. Faculty members originally organized the event at the end of the summer in the mid-1920s to help students who were arriving for the fall semester get to know each other. The deans purchased the watermelons for the bash, which originally took place in front of the Austin Building on Vista Drive.
Students now beat the heat with a slice of watermelon next to the Surfin' Steve fountain — another beloved structure added to the middle of campus in the 1980s.