By Jo Mikula, Opinion Editor
Haverford Customs has been around in one form or another since about the mid-1800s, when a group of upperclassmen “spontaneously began keeping the peace in Barclay, the college’s first dorm, by quieting the rowdy underclassmen and teaching the new students the ‘customs’ of the College,” according to the Haverford College official website. This early rendition of Customs often involved some unorthodox methods, including throwing first years headfirst into the Duck Pond. Photographic evidence proves that this practice of “Duck Pond Chucking” persisted until at least 1948.
More recent iterations of Customs differ significantly from these original roots. Even though the program hasn’t involved throwing students into the Duck Pond for a number of years, Haverford students and administration are working to hone Customs and make it a better program for as many first-years as possible.
The fall of 2018 saw the rollout of some fairly substantial changes to the existing Customs system. Customs Co-Heads Madeline Guth ’19 and Tina Le ’19 defined this year of Customs, with its myriad changes, as “a time of transition.” Much of their work this year has revolved around implementing the changes to Customs that last year’s Co-Heads Rachel Romens ’18 and Saumya Varma ’18 had devised.
The most significant change to the program was the decision to make Honor Code Orienteers, or HCOs, and Peer Awareness Facilitators, or PAFs, single position roles instead of paired roles as they have been in the past. The intent of this change was to reduce the number of customs team members and increase cohesion and bonding amongst the team. A few weeks into the school year, the two Co-Heads had not heard any negative feedback about the switch to single positions.
The switch to single positions was also intended to help make the positions more fluid, by having off-the-hall team members like HCOs and PAFs collaborate on a number of sessions. This was a fairly organic progression, given that these sessions have long blended into one another. “Customs is more collaborative and more shared,” said Le. “In a way, I think it has grown from having one partner to having five partners.”
A new event during Customs Week got students off campus and into the town of Ardmore. First-years and Customs members were given vouchers for food vendors and non-profits on the Main Line, and were encouraged to explore the surrounding community. Guth and Le, along with Haverford’s Director of Student Engagement and Leadership, Michael Elias, worked to include a number of businesses run by people of color in this initiative.
The Customs program is grounded in a lot of communication between the Customs Co-Heads and the Haverford administration. Guth described their relationship to the administration as a “thought partnership.” Elias and other members of the administration have been involved in the running Customs for years, but Guth and Le bring a unique experience as former first-years and team members. “It couldn’t work without all those different perspectives,” said Guth, “which is why it’s so important that both students and administrators are involved. There was a real honoring of each others experiences.”
As seniors that will graduate soon, both Guth and Le have emphasized their desire to continue the work that Romens and Varma began last year to build an institutional memory around Customs. “Michael [Elias] and Michelle [Leao] are living forms of institutional memory,” said Guth. Guth and Le have also created a Google Drive full of timelines, applications, meeting notes, and other important information. A look through the Google Drive will help future Co-Heads follow the process that this years Co-Heads used as they went about organizing the program.
On the subject of future Customs Programs, both Guth and Le expressed a hope that next year’s Co-Heads will be committed to continuing to work on amending and improving the program. “Customs definitely isn’t perfect” said Le. “Madeline and I have constructive criticisms, and we will be there for whoever inherits our positions to give advice.”
“Customs is constantly a work in progress,” added Guth. “We always have to keep sitting down to scrutinize what is the intention behind this, why are we doing it this way, are we just doing this because of tradition?”
Customs has evolved from upperclassmen chucking first years into the duck pond, into an administration sanctioned tradition that serves to welcome all first years to Haverford’s campus. Like any institution, Customs is a living, breathing program that will continue to change and improve in order to better serve the Haverford first year community.
Photo By Wanyi Yang
