Considering Traditions that Build Community at Cate

By Jay Melican '84

For Cate alumni, it may be the week they spent camping with their classmates in Yosemite, a Los Niños trip, or the annual square dance in the gym. For a majority of recent graduates and current students, the list of Cate traditions they recall as the most meaningful or most inspiring is almost certain to include Sunset Ceremony –now held at the start and end of every school year.

That’s according to the results of a survey conducted by the Education & Student Life (E&SL) Committee of Cate’s Board of Trustees. The E&SL Committee serves to inform and educate the Board on the work of the school and, in particular, on the student experience at Cate. Each year, the committee – composed of trustees, faculty, and five student representatives – focuses its attention on an important aspect of student life at Cate, gathering input from the student body and faculty and, this year, from alumni as well.

The committee’s charge for the 202223 school year is to consider the traditions through which we build community at Cate, with the goal to share findings broadly, including – as an introduction and welcome – with Alex Lockett, our incoming Head of School. In December and January, 180 student, faculty, and alumni survey participants offered their reflections on Cate traditions. Which have changed or evolved over time? Which endure? Which support a sense of community and belonging? Which may not be accomplishing what we hope they are?

It should not come as a surprise that the traditions cited as most effective at forging community and lasting relationships at Cate are the simple everyday interactions, both scheduled and unscheduled, between students and faculty. Formal dinners, advisory group meetings, all-school assemblies, participating in, and gathering to watch sporting events, dormitory life (and dorm cheers) were among the most common things that students and faculty said made them feel connected to the Cate community.

Many survey respondents acknowledged the challenges of preserving traditional community interactions – from simply exchanging greetings in passing, to engaging in deep mealtime or dorm room conversations – when it is so easy to become distracted by our phones. On the other hand, just as many praised the ways technology enables us to stay connected as a community through email, social media, video calls, and virtual classes even when we’re not together on the Mesa.

It turns out we cherish Cate’s adaptability in equal measure to its traditions. Some of our community’s most highly valued traditions are, in fact, relatively new: (e.g., Servons Speeches) or very new (e.g., the Kindness Jar). Some, like formal dinners, are as old as the school itself. An alumnus of the ’80s summed it up best with his response to the survey question, “What would you never change about Cate?” While he loves just about everything about Cate and its longstanding traditions, he said, “I respect and hope that the school will evolve and change, too.”

Thanks to the Education & Student Life Committee’s student representatives: Harry McAdam '23, Gigi Geyer '23, Sahar Shariah '24, Harry Su '25, and Lorelei Roof '26.