Sat 28 Jun 2008
Now that the Odd Quad has been dead for two years, where does the current generation of “Deviants” hang out?
The name “Deviants” was adopted by members of the Williams community who associated themselves with a less mainstream culture, particularly social life. The name was taken from a listserver owned by Jesse Dill ‘04 and Chris Holmes ‘03, which was first created to organize Driscoll Deviations, and then gradually became a means to announce social events in general. It is still used for this purpose.
The Deviants emerged in 2002 and enjoyed the height of their mischief in 2003. Prior Williams generations of people who enjoyed doing things that were off the beaten path had, until then, associated themselves with WARP and used that listserver as primary means of communication. With the graduation of the class of 2002, in 2003 WARP took on a slightly heavier role playing, bopsword, video gaming identity. Out of a desire to participate in quirky, fun events but not necessarily under the WARP banner were born the Deviants.
In a campus of Neighborhoods, where do the Deviants call home?
June 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Sounds as if the Deviants is a form of fraternity - in violation of College policy.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:27 am
This is one of the greatest losses brought about by the neighborhood system. It is my understanding that they are spread out all over the campus to the extent they still exist.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
There are a few still hanging on in the odd quad, just a smaller minority than before. The shrinking of the group has a lot more to do with people graduating than cluster housing, though. It’s basically a group of friends who hang out a lot, not a fraternity, so it makes sense that the group’s changed character and lost cohesiveness as the people who started it and their friends graduated.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
A group of friends who hang out a lot meets my definition of a fraternity - call them as you like.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
“Fraternity” implies exclusivity, which is quite contrary to the spirit of Deviants.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The Deviants clearly don’t fit the college’s definition of a fraternity. If they fit yours, then hooray! - fraternities (by your definition) were never outlawed, and you have no cause for complaint.
June 28th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
In certain colleges there are fraternities which both the college and the fraternities call fraternities and which have self-selection, meaning if any person wants to be a member, then he or she is a member.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Really cool. The post does not mention what kind of mischief they get into, and why? Perhaps mystery is the purpose?
Big town theater mix this year. Every year the festival brings a different culture to the town. This year the “theater people” are hanging out with the locals. The Red Herring is rocking with townies and actors. It has a feel to it, like the 70s during Vietnam, when the social scene reflected a strong desire in the society to come together.
Obama is going to win big.
A great year for a summer in Billsville.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Don’t feed the troll, people.
For some examples of the mischief the deviants got into, check out the Willipedia articles on Deviations and pranks.
Eph07’s answer is going to be only a half truth. Deviants have been graduating for decades; every year there losses of major personalities but never a lack of a critical mass of replacements who continued the culture in their own way. If that cycle has ended, well, it’s always possible that the culture’s time had simply come, but I’d say it’s far more likely that cluster housing dealt a fatal blow to a culture that perpetuated itself by delicate, informal means (much easier, for example, for example, for new members of a sports team to keep finding each other and self-segreating than for informally-associated deviants to).