When students are introduced to the main campus at the University of New Haven, a scary trap will haunt them. As little as one tiptoe in the seal in the quad will doom the student to never completing their university degree.
As most college campuses have, students are introduced to curses and on-campus traps. At the university, a long-standing tradition involves a large seal in the middle of the Maxcy Quad. When students take a tour of the campus, they will most likely be taken to the seal, where their tour guide will explain to them if they step on the seal, they will either not graduate on time, or graduate early. No one knows how many students have stepped on the seal, but many today do not risk the path of not graduating on time, even if the other possibility is an early graduation.
College campus curses promote traditions. They help bring students and staff together and make them more willing to embrace something that stands out on campus. These traditions are also passed down from generation to generation that attend college. There are plenty who have found out about traditions like the seal the hard way, such as College of Arts and Sciences professor Paul Cassella.
“I actually was here as an instructor in my first semester walking with some students and they grabbed me and pulled me away saying you can’t step on the seal, or you won’t graduate,” he said. Cassella said he has friends who attended the university decades ago who knew about the seal. This example can also show the psychological impacts the seal may have on others and how it can even result in people being desperate to stop others from stepping on them.
Superstition plays a big role in the seal curse, so much so that it has made some people unwilling to even come close when walking near it.
Emily Grable, a freshman communications major, said she’s heard about students’ seal experiences that made her fear the possibility of graduating either late or early.
“I met people who graduated a year earlier because of it or later with some cases being two years later,” said Grable. “Most of them added dual-degrees or added graduate stuff to their original plan.”
Thankfully — at least anecdotally — the majority of students who have stepped on the seal are not a result of failing classes but more those who opted to switch majors or take on a different degree. Most students only anticipate going to college for undergraduate studies for four years, and don’t expect to switch their majors beforehand.
Others, however, don’t take the superstition of the seal as seriously breaking tradition but do respectfully opt to not step on it anyway. Tyler Lebel, a senior criminal justice major, had similar feelings to this stance.
“I ignored it, but it doesn’t take any more time out of my day to go around it and then someone would see me step on it and point it out,” he said.
Mattingly Creter, a sophomore music and sound recording major, said he did not take the seal seriously. Is it true? Who knows? We may never learn the truth. The Maxcy Seal will always be a significant part of the University of New Haven’s culture, traditions, and history.
