A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 83

"On all Sundays and Saint-days, and the evenings preceding, every member of the University, except n.o.blemen, attends chapel in his surplice."--_Grad. ad Cantab._, pp. 106, 107.

SUSPEND. In colleges, to separate a student from his cla.s.s, and place him under private instruction.

And those whose crimes are very great, Let us _suspend_ or rusticate.--_Rebelliad_, p. 24.

SUSPENSION. In universities and colleges, the punishment of a student for some offence, usually negligence, by separating him from his cla.s.s, and compelling him to pursue those branches of study in which he is deficient under private instruction, provided for the purpose.

SUSPENSION-PAPER. The paper in which the act of suspension from college is declared.

Come, take these three _suspension-papers_; They'll teach you how to cut such capers.

_Rebelliad_, p. 32.

SUSPENSION TO THE ROOM. In Princeton College, one of the punishments for certain offences subjects a student to confinement to his chamber and exclusion from his cla.s.s, and requires him to recite to a teacher privately for a certain time. This is technically called _suspension to the room_.

SWEEP, SWEEPER. The name given at Yale and other colleges to the person whose occupation it is to sweep the students' rooms, make their beds, &c.

Then how welcome the entrance of the _sweep_, and how cutely we fling jokes at each other through the dust!--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XIV. p. 223.

Knocking down the _sweep_, in clearing the stairs, we described a circle to our room.--_The Yale Banger_, Nov. 10, 1846.

A Freshman by the faithful _sweep_ Was found half buried in soft sleep.

_Ibid._, Nov. 10, 1846.

With fingers dirty and black, From lower to upper room, A College _Sweep_ went dustily round, Plying his yellow broom.

_Songs of Yale_, 1853, p. 12.

In the Yale Literary Magazine, Vol. III. p. 144, is "A tribute to certain Members of the Faculty, whose names are omitted in the Catalogue," in which appropriate praise is awarded to these useful servants.

The Steward ... engages _sweepers_ for the College.--_Laws Harv.

Coll._, 1816, p. 48.

One of the _sweepers_ finding a parcel of wood,... the defendant, in the absence of the owner of the wood, authorizes the _sweeper_ to carry it away.--_Scenes and Characters in College_, p. 98.

SWELL BLOCK. In the University of Virginia, a sobriquet applied to dandies and vain pretenders.

SWING. At several American colleges, the word _swing_ is used for coming out with a secret society badge; 1st, of the society, to _swing out_ the new men; and, 2d, of the men, intransitively, to _swing_, or to _swing out_, i.e. to appear with the badge of a secret society. Generally, _to swing out_ signifies to appear in something new.

The new members have "_swung out_," and all again is harmony.--_Soph.o.m.ore Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

SYNDIC. Latin, _syndicus_; Greek, [Greek: sundikos; sun], _with_, and [Greek: dikae], _justice_.

An officer of government, invested with different powers in different countries. Almost all the companies in Paris, the University, &c., have their _syndics_. The University of Cambridge has its _syndics_, who are chosen from the Senate to transact special business, as the regulation of fees, forming of laws, inspecting the library, buildings, printing, &c.--_Webster. Cam.

Cal._

SYNDICATE. A council or body of syndics.

The state of instruction in and encouragement to the study of Theology were thus set forth in the report of a _syndicate_ appointed to consider the subject in 1842.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 293.

_T_.

TADS. At Centre College, Ky., there is "a society," says a correspondent, "composed of the very best fellows of the College, calling themselves _Tads_, who are generally a.s.sociated together, for the object of electing, by the additional votes of their members, any of their friends who are brought forward as candidates for any honor or appointment in the literary societies to which they belong."

TAKE UP. To call on a student to rehea.r.s.e a lesson.

Professor _took_ him _up_ on Greek; He tried to talk, but couldn't speak.

_MS Poem_.

TAKE UP ONE'S CONNECTIONS. In students' phrase, to leave college.

Used in American inst.i.tutions.

TARDES. At the older American colleges, when charges were made and excuses rendered in Latin, the student who had come late to any religious service was addressed by the proper officer with the word _Tardes_, a kind of barbarous second person singular of some unknown verb, signifying, probably, "You are or were late."

Much absence, _tardes_ and egresses, The college-evil on him seizes.

_Trumbull's Progress of Dullness_, Part I.

TARDY. In colleges, late in attendance on a public exercise.--_Webster_.

TAVERN. At Harvard College, the rooms No. 24 Ma.s.sachusetts Hall, and No. 8 Hollis Hall, were occupied from the year 1789 to 1793 by Mr. Charles Angier. His table was always supplied with wine, brandy, crackers, etc., of which his friends were at liberty to partake at any time. From this circ.u.mstance his rooms were called _the Tavern_ for nearly twenty years after his graduation.

In connection with this incident, it may not be uninteresting to state, that the cellars of the two buildings above mentioned were divided each into thirty-two compartments, corresponding with the number of rooms. In these the students and tutors stored their liquors, sometimes in no inconsiderable quant.i.ties. Frequent entries are met with in the records of the Faculty, in which the students are charged with pilfering wine, brandy, or eatables from the tutors' _bins_.

TAXOR. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., an officer appointed to regulate the a.s.size of bread, the true gauge of weights, etc.--_Cam. Cal._

TEAM. In the English universities, the pupils of a private tutor or COACH.--_Bristed_.

No man who has not taken a good degree expects or pretends to take good men into his _team_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.

Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 69.

It frequently, indeed usually happens, that a "coach" of reputation declines taking men into his _team_ before they have made time in public.--_Ibid._, p. 85.