Greenville College is rich in traditions that symbolize the distinctive impact of an education here. One such long standing traditions has recently been expanded and even "captured" in a small walnut cabinet.

Ivy Cutting |  Planting of the Ivy  |  Ceremonial Tools

Ivy Cutting
Dating back to the first decade of the 1900s, GC students have participated in a ceremony known as the "Ivy Cutting." Seniors, wearing caps and gowns have gathered on the academic quadrangle linked together by one continuous strand of ivy. In a silent procession they move as one group through a "gauntlet" of robed faculty, up the back stairs of the central academic building, through the lobby, and out onto the front lawn of the college facing the public street.

Still in silence, and surrounded by hundreds of parents and friends, the college president and his wife, cut the continuous strand symbolically sending the class into the world. The tradition ends with the singing of the alma mater which ends with the refrain, "Though from here our paths may sever, and we distant roam, still abides the memory every of our college home" and the class disburses silently in all directions.

Planting of the Ivy
Four years ago, a matching ceremony was instituted for the incoming freshman class each year. Called the "Planting of the Ivy" this ceremony reverses Ivy Cutting. Freshmen gather on the front lawn, symbolically coming from the nearby street, and process silently behind the president up the front steps of the 150 year old main building, through the lobby, through the ranks of their robed faculty out onto the circular plaza immediately behind. Each one carries an individual sprig of ivy. Surrounded there by parents, and faculty, the president takes three sprigs from their hands and plants them in a pot.

The idea of course is to make plain that at Greenville College, a large part of what happens is that students come as individuals from all walks of life, grow tightly together as one over four years of living and learning, and are then separated to move on into life.

Ceremonial Tools
In the last few months, this beautiful pair of matching ceremonies, often accompanied by great emotion have been "captured" in a small walnut cabinet mounted permanently to the wall of the President's office. In a beautifully engraved, glass faced, felt lined, locked box, are hung a silver planting spade and a silver pair of cutting shears.