Blount Library Blog

Archival Display, August 2023 - "Rat Week"

This month, Blount Library continues its series of archival displays with an array of items related to "Rat Week."

It is unclear when "Ratting" began at Averett, but clear references to it exist in the school's first yearbook from 1904.  Whatever the true history of "Rat Week, it was a regular feature of life at Averett from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s.  For at least 50 years, Averett College (as it was then known) held a yearly rite of initiation in which the Seniors would haze the incoming students with absurd rules and mild abuse.  Rules like "Every rat must wear her dress backwards" and "Rats can have no dessert" set the tone for a week of subjugation, with the young students visibly marked with blue and gold freshman caps and carboard signs reading "I am a rat."

Though Rat Week was a longstanding tradition when Averett was a women's college, after male students were added to the mix the event got quickly out of hand.  One student was quoted in the Chanticleer saying: "What I went through with the upperclass girls was nothing bad, but when we had to go through the guys' dorms, they got a little out of hand."  By the mid-1980s, in a culture increasingly concerned about college hazing practices, Howard Lee - then President of Averett College - put a permanent stop to Averett's 'Ratting' tradition.  Lee issued a sternly worded memo to the student body, describing rat night as a tradition in which "behavior which intimidates or humiliates is passed off as fun and games" and thus "in violation of the principles of human dignity."

Rat Week is a wonderful example of the importance of alumni donations to the archives.  Over the years, the Archives has collected a few items related to Rat Week, ranging from photos, to the Howard Lee memo, to extra unused freshman caps, several of which are on display in the library.  The display would seem quite paltry, however, without the October 1993 donations of June (Schilling) O'Shaughnessy, class of 1943.  Mrs. O'Shaughnessy had kept and eventually donated her cap, Rat Week sign, and Rat Week notebook, among other materials.  Thanks to her generosity, we have a much more vivid display of one student's personal experience of Rat Week..

All are welcome to come see the full display in the large display case on the main floor of Blount Library.