Chapel Sing

Wabash College has a lot of traditions. One of the most popular traditions on Wabash’s campus is Chapel Sing. This event is only done by freshman students in their fall semester. It consists of students lining up based on residence, wearing white t-shirts, and singing the college’s fight song for a set amount of time. While they are singing a group of students walk around an monitor the participants to make sure that they know the song. To me the event is somewhat of a welcoming into Wabash and an introduction to the college’s traditions. Not only do I view it this way, but I feel that it is also a representation of the pride that we have in our school. Students at other colleges do not normally take the initiative to learn their school’s fight song, and the fact that we learn ours freshman year signifies our love for our school, and makes us interested in other Wabash traditions.

When looking at this event a Post-Structuralist critic would disregard what everybody says that it represents and just look at the event without any outside opinions. The critic would start off by saying that there is no definite answer to what the event symbolizes. They would then point out that maybe not all of the participants want to be there (and that not all of the freshman actually participate), and those that do participate do so because they feel obligated because of the big deal that is made about it by their peers (and not so much that they are proud of their school). Another point that they would argue on is the role of power during the event. Would it be the monitors who are in control, or the participants? They would say things like, “If there were no monitors would the participants actually learn the song?” but would also say things like, “Without the participants there would be no Chapel Sing.”