Tradition
The Brass Rat is traditionally worn with the Beaver "sitting" on the wearer until graduation. This represents the hardships imposed on students at MIT. In addition, the skyline of Boston is facing the student, representing the outside world awaiting. After graduation, the ring is turned around, and the Cambridge skyline is visible to the graduate, as a reminder of times spent at MIT.
The undergraduate ring is designed and presented in the sophomore year of each class. The design is unveiled during the Ring Premiere in the Fall Term, which is followed months later by the Ring Delivery in the Spring Term. The latter has been a tradition since 1999 (Class of 2001), and is typically a formal occasion. Ring Delivery ceremonies have been held on a harbor cruise, at prestigious restaurants, and at the Boston Public Library. Although parts of the ring change each year, there is typically the MIT seal on one shank of the ring, and a depiction of the Dome on the other side. The 2008 Brass Rat was the first in recent years to revert to the original style of the ring, placing the seal and Dome above the "MIT" and "08" respectively. The 2010 Brass Rat was the first to invert the "MIT" and "2010" on the shanks of the ring.
Read more about this topic: MIT Class Ring
Famous quotes containing the word tradition:
“It is characteristic of the epistemological tradition to present us with partial scenarios and then to demand whole or categorical answers as it were.”
—Avrum Stroll (b. 1921)
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“And hereby hangs a moral highly applicable to our own trustee-ridden universities, if to nothing else. If we really wanted liberty of speech and thought, we could probably get it—Spain fifty years ago certainly had a longer tradition of despotism than has the United States—but do we want it? In these years we will see.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)