In almost every advertisement that Covenant puts out, there is one blaring theme: community. Admissions speaks constantly about the benefits of the hall structure and the great individual cultures that grow from this system. Hall culture is a strong attraction for many incoming students, and rightfully so. It certainly attracted me!
I truly believed that Covenant was a place to express individuality, but lately I have been disheartened by the homogeneity of different halls. I fear we are losing hall individuality, and much of that worry stems from the creation and promotion of the relic system.
That strong individuality was one of the primary factors that made Covenant so appealing to me in the first place. My dad lived on Blackwatch, and when I was a kid, he would tell me stories of their many traditions and quirks, many of which have since dissipated. I was attracted to the idea of truly being a part of something, a group that was identifiable and unique. This is something that has strongly diminished in the past 15 years.
Contrary to what many think, the idea of stealing relics is a relatively new idea. The idea of relics was created shortly before the pandemic, only gaining traction after the quarantine ended. The idea of relics, and particularly the stealing of relics, was endorsed by Student Development in order to re-stimulate hall culture. However, it seems to have had detrimental effects on the traditions and culture of many halls.
With a system that encourages the stealing of valuable hall objects, we chisel cracks into the foundation of our community. Many “relics” existed far before this whole structure was created, such as the 2nd South Bear Head or Catacombs’ Rob Jackson. These items are not only fragile but important to both current students and alumni, and stealing or tampering with them harms decades of tradition and community.
At the heart of the issue, relic-stealing leads to people being less genuine and less creative. When Covenant promotes the stealing of valuable objects, people are hesitant to have these objects and much less likely to display them.
Not identifying a relic isn’t a solution either. There have been many situations in which personal property has been stolen in place of a relic. This happened to the Haven last year.
“We had a stuffed duck be mistaken for our relic, stolen, and then returned destroyed a few days later. It was my property and I never announced anything,” said Lily Coppell ’28, the current RA of the Haven.
Because of this fear, many students consider it better to have nothing of value rather than having an important item on the hall that they have to constantly worry about. This leads to less creativity and hall expression on campus out of fear, which slowly degrades our culture. We need to think about the negative impact of the relic system on us, our alumni, and our community.