Monday, September 23, 2013

Want Some Cheese With That Whine ... As You Ruin 140 Years Of Rutgers Tradition?!

     Rutgers University has officially updated (read as ruined) their 140 year old alma mater by changing the lyrics to be gender neutral ... and I say this as a woman ... a woman who loves the tradition that Rutgers once prided itself in ... and is slowly breaking down each and every one bit by bit.


     If you are reading this, you may very well know that the original lyrics to the first verse of the alma mater went (sing along with me now, students of Rutgers) ---

      My father sent me to Old Rutgers and resolv'd that I should be a man; and so I settled down, in that noisy college town, on the banks of the Old Raritan.

     The lyrics (ridiculously) now go a little something like this ...

     From far and near we came to Rutgers and resolved to learn all that we can; and so we settled down, in that noisy college town, on the banks of the Old Raritan.

     The new lyrics remove the reference to fathers and becoming men ... because students have a mom too or even two daddies or two mommies or no mommies or no daddies or whatever and because Rutgers is now co-ed and people have felt the need to whine and complain over this fact for years ... Because you know changing the lyrics for a select bunch of people is better than holding on to a tradition that a much larger group of others love and appreciate.
     I don't know if these new lyrics will gain any popularity and stick ... But I do know that I will continue to sing the lyrics that I have grown to know and love (and, let's be honest, memorize) over the past almost ten years I have been around Rutgers, and I hope others will too.

My father sent me to Old Rutgers and resolv'd that I should be a man; and so I settled down in that noisy college town, on the banks of the Old Raritan. On the banks of the Old Raritan (my friends), where Rutgers evermore shall stand, for has she not stood since the time of the flood, on the banks of the Old Raritan. (On The Banks Of The Old Raritan, Rutgers Alma Mater)

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