All colleges have their own “things” – those little factors that make them unique. They’re the kinds of things that you don’t learn on tours, or read about on the school’s website. You don’t really hear about them from students either; they’re just a part of campus life that you learn over time. Bryant, of course, has these unique (sometimes weird) qualities, too. Here are Her Campus’s top 10 favorite things that you can only find at Bryant University:
1. Seeing the President around campus
Most college students don’t even know who the president of their school is, let alone see him on a regular basis. It’s not weird to see President Ronald Machtley, or his wife, Kati, strolling around the Uni, eating in Salmo, or hanging out in the Fisher Student Center. They have a huge on-campus presence, and love to be part of the Bryant community! They even live in a beautiful house on the edge of campus, and have a huge cookout for the incoming freshmen each year so they can get to know Bryant’s newest bulldogs – tell us another school that has a president as great as “Big-Dawg” Machtley!
2. TNR/WNR
If you don’t know what these acronyms stand for, you clearly don’t attend Bryant University. Rente’s is everyone’s favorite bar right off campus, and it loves us right back. Bryant students love hitting up Rente’s any night of the week, but our personal favorites are Tuesday and Wednesday nights, (hence TNR: Tuesday Night Rente’s, and WNR: Wednesday Night Rente’s). We know all colleges have “their” bars, but no one else has a Rente’s!
3. Seeing student’s in formal business attire isn’t weird
As a business school, Bryant students are often expected to dress business formal for class presentations, networking events, or for major club meetings. At most other colleges, if you saw a student walking around in a full suit, you would wonder where the heck they were headed, but at Bryant we don’t even bat an eye. Some students “dress for success” just for fun – crazy, we know. While many students will graduate college and need to go shopping for business attire, Bryant student’s closets will already be fully stocked for the workforce.
4. Avoiding the Archway
Ok so you might hear about this one on the tour, but it is definitely unique to Bryant. If you’re ever on your way to class and see the Archway, you’ll notice students walking around it as they pass by. It is a myth that any Bryant student who walks through the Archway before graduation day will not graduate. The only way to supposedly reverse this curse is to jump into the pond – but we’re not taking any chances. We’ll stick to avoiding the Archway and graduating on time, thank you!
5. The Uni- our lone academic building
While Bryant has recently added the Academic Innovation Center to our limited list of places for classes to be held, our main academic building is our Unistructure. Not only does the Uni hold most of the classrooms on campus, but it houses Admissions, Advising, office suites, our post office, dining hall, and so SO much more. It’s essentially a giant high school plopped onto a college campus. While this may seem strange to other college students who most likely attend a school with multiple academic buildings, Bryant students don’t seem to mind this feature. This is especially nice during the wintertime because you can walk to class in the morning, stay inside all day, and not walk back outside until after dinner (if you really wanted to), so we can’t really complain!
6. The squirrel population
If you attend another college, you’ll notice the majority of the inhabitants of campus are, in fact, students. Well, here at Bryant University, students rank second to the overwhelming amount of squirrels that populate the campus. These are not like regular squirrels, you know, like the kind that hang out in trees and are afraid of humans – these creatures are wild. They are not scared of anything, and literally will run right up to students. Sometimes they even run right over your feet if they see an unattended acorn in the distance. If you go to Bryant, you know that this is the squirrels’ campus, and we’re all just living in it.
7. The INSANE amount of group projects
Here at Bryant University, we are ALL about the group projects. In high school, we always wished for group projects because they were few and far between, but Bryant students definitely do not have this issue. You will always have a group project, or two, or three, going on. You’ll probably do more group work than work on your own. We understand that “everything in business is about team work,” and “once we graduate we’ll always be in a group work environment,” but the amount of group projects almost has us wishing we could work alone!
Are other schools like this? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
8. 2am squad meet ups at Ronzio’s
Ronzio’s is like a second home to Bryant students – except it’s that kind of second home that you only go on the weekends, past midnight, after a long day/night of drinking. It’s that second home that always has a beautiful slice of pizza waiting for you. That second home that always has a ‘Help Wanted’ sign on the window. That second home that is always really gross inside but you don’t even mind because you’re shoving too many mozzarella sticks into your mouth to care. Yeah, that kind of second home. It just wouldn’t be a night out at Bryant if you did nor hit up Ronzio’s!
9. Overuse of the word “innovation”
If you’re reading this and you go to Bryant, you are most definitely triggered by the word ‘innovation’. It’s every professor’s favorite word, and every student’s least favorite. Everything is “innovative” at Bryant. We are “innovative” students, who do “innovative” projects. We literally have a building called the Academic Innovation Center. Freshmen even have to go through “innovation training” during the Bryant IDEA Program every winter. Bryant should change its motto to “get innovative or get out” TBH.
10. Tupper
Last but certainly not least, Bryant University is blessed with the cutest mascot ever: Tupper the Bulldog. He’s always somewhere around campus just waiting for someone to pet him. We all love his little Bryant attire, and seeing him in his stroller. If you’re lucky enough to see Tupper, you’re lucky enough. On another note, this dog is literally treated like a prince, so just know that while he might be a mascot, he’s also lowkey royalty. We can tell you with complete certainty that no other school has a mascot as adorable as Tupper!
While we love, and love to hate, some of these little things about Bryant, it truly would not be Bryant University without all of them! Go Books, Go Bulldogs!