Carnegie Mellon University traditions

Carnegie Mellon University is home to a variety of unique traditions, some of which date back to the early days of its over 100-year history. Many of these traditions hearken to the university's strength in engineering, such as the buggy races and the mobot,s while others are purely social in nature, such as Spring Carnival and The Fence.

The first great tradition at Carnegie Mellon is The Fence, built in 1923, lies in the middle of the Cut. The Fence frequently displays witty or poignant messages, but is just as often used to advertise upcoming events or recent accomplishments. Because of its highly visible location on campus, it is an ideal place to proclaim one's message to as much of the student body as possible. The original wooden fence was replaced in 1993 when it collapsed under its own weight due to six inches of surrounding paint. At the time, it held the Guinness World Record for being the most painted object. Today, a concrete and steel reinforced fence stands where the original one stood, imitating the size it would be today. Students still paint the fence in an effort to break the record held by the original as the world's most painted upon object. Currently the fence has four inches of paint.

The Fence's origins date back to the early days of Carnegie Institute of Technology when The Cut was still a valley that separated the Carnegie Tech buildings from the Margaret Morrison women's school. Over the valley spanned a bridge which the men of Carnegie Tech realized was a strategic spot for meeting the women of Maggie Mo as they crossed the cut. However, when The Cut was filled in to form the current-day grassy field, the bottleneck disappeared. In its stead, the administration erected a fence to stand in as a meeting spot. However, the university's students took a negative view of the structure not understanding the point of it. The administration was just about to give up and tear it down when the night before a fraternity painted The Fence in the middle of the night advertising a party on campus. The party turned out to be a huge success, as has the tradition of painting the fence. The administration relented on their plans for removing the fence.

In August 2008, the graduating class of 2008 at the Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Campus brought the tradition to California by installing their own version of the fence, and dedicating it to Randy Pausch who died in that year.

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