ORIENTATION GUIDE 2023 What first-years should know about GW’s weirder side

Explaining GW’s culture is tricky.

Some might argue it can be defined by the mantra #onlyatGW, which the University has marketed to highlight our campus’ central location to the goings on of politics and power. At a school where the vice president of the United States parked her motorcade on our concrete version of a “quad” and the former secretary of state scootered through campus, there are plenty of worthy moments to choose from.

But at its root, GW is the “not like the other girls” equivalent of a college. Here are GW’s quirkiest elements of which every incoming student should be aware.

We don’t have a football team … anymore

Many students like to joke that

GW’s football team reigns undefeated under the assumption it never existed, but that is a farce. Founded in 1881, the team known up until 1928 as the “Hatchetites” has a surprisingly storied past in the Southern Conference, winning the conference title in 1890 and the Sun Bowl in 1957.

Due to low game attendance and ballooning maintenance costs for the team — at the time about $300,000 — the program was officially cut in 1967.

We get wacky security alerts

Students are opted in to text and email messages known as GW Alert, many of which help students avoid areas where there is dangerous activity. However, sometimes these warnings are both disturbing and comical.

In late-September 2022, students received a puzzling warning about two members of the GW community being “struck by small round objects” near the Science and Engineering Hall, coincidentally the day after a GW tradition: Apple Day, a celebration of the fall harvest in which free apples are given out to students. Typically, students will receive an “all clear” message once a situation is under control, but this odd alert swept through campus only to never be discussed again. So the next time your phone buzzes and the message GW ALERT pops up, be sure to read the whole text — it might just be a warning to duck.

Why is there a statue of a hippo in the middle of campus?

As you may have heard by now, our University is getting a new moniker: the Revolutionaries. But the student body has also had an unofficial mascot for more than two decades thanks to former University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who held the