Freshman Week

It has been Freshman Week at the Methodist University, and the ritual hazing has been going on, on a big scale. There are shaved heads and painted faces. The hair that has been cut off from Freshman heads is under foot on the sidewalks, waiting for a rain to wash it into the storm sewer system. Streamers of toilet paper are visible here and there, fulfilling some function that the undergraduates understand. At nearby traffic lights, some shaved and painted freshmen are approaching stopped cars and asking for money (It's called pedágio, and it's really quite traditional). Large numbers of young people seem to be involved.

I have been told that the ritual fulfills an important function. For many, it's the only time students are really together, except for the classroom itself. That may change, as the Methodist University is now building a Student Union, something this campus has never had.

Another sign of the ritual's importance is a billboard that went up a few months ago, advertising one of São Paulo's more commercial universities. It shows the face of a shaved and painted freshman, grinning from ear to ear, and the words underneath it say, "You, too, can go to college."

Yours,

Arch Woodruff