2000s
Overview
When diving into the 2000's, there has been a major shift from both what secret societies are known to the student body, as well how people are seeing the societies that they are familiar with. Not all the secret societies that are present at Washington and Lee University today continue to have certain traditions as they have had in the past. While looking at the past pages, many of the societies used to have major balls, functions, and activities, but rather now the secret societies that are known, the purpose of them in the eyes of the secret societies are rather unknown. With the survey that we sent out to the school, it came back that majority of those surveyed could only name the Cadaver Society while a few people sprinkled in that they knew the Sigma Society. Compared to the pre-1950's - 2000, the Sigma Society has seemed to almost completely disappear from the people’s knowledge, while the Cadaver Society sits as the most well-known of society.
The Cadaver Society, mentioned in an article from The Ring-Tum Phi, shows to be the most prevalent secret society on Washington and Lee campus from the start of 2000, to current day. The Cadaver Society, up until the football field on campus was switched to turf, would feature a massive Cadaver logo on the field, painted by the Cadavers the night before. The school never said anything or did anything to change it because the Cadaver Society was considered "a friend of the university". The article in The Ring-Tum Phi mentions a brief story about freshman football players unmasking Cadavers while the two Cadavers were painting the field the night before a home football game. This act by the Cadaver society is meant to be neither vandalism nor degradation, but rather the members of the society not wanting their presence to be forgotten on campus.
In a clipping pulled from the Ring-Tum Phi, a brief article talks about one of Washington and Lee's students who continued the notion that if you remove a mask from a Cadaver, then the Cadaver Society will pay for your tuition for the school. This speculation drives the point that nobody truly knows what the Secret Societies are meant to do, but instead the student body as well as occasional teachers, will start a rumor about secret societies without any physical evidence to back up their ideas. The Cadaver Society remains to lurk around campus, and to present day, despite Gapsis, the female in the article, never receiving her believed payment, majority of the student body continues the belief that if a student is to unmask a member of the Cadaver Society, their tuition will be paid for by the Society.
Brining the discussion of the Secret Societies to recent years, many topics of society in general are brought into conversation with and about them. In 2014, gender inequality conversations began to rise throughout society and among many universities as well. In an Article from In General, a student wrote a length page about said inequality and why the Cadaver Society especially is being criticized for how they do things. Before the 2000's, the Cadaver Society was never being held under critique like this. The student body has shifted to a more negative outlook upon this Secret Society.
"The school tolerates the society's behavior because of how much money Cadaver Alums give back to the school."- In General Article
She pulls to blame that just because of how much money the Cadaver Society, the school doesn't care about their actions regarding vandalizing the school, supposedly having only men, and so called "terrifying" students late at night in their masks. In the survey responses we gathered, many students wrote similar answers in agreeance with the supposed beliefs from the article. Compared to pre-1950's, the purpose of the secret societies in the eyes of students and staff has shifted towards a more negative perspective, if not that, then many students are rather uncertain of the purpose and intentions behind the secret societies.
"When I hear 'Cadavers' I think they are wealthy boys who are probably very socially relevant within their fraternities." - In General Article
In the photo to the right, posted on the wall of the third floor of Leyburn Library at Washington and Lee rests a plaque that is titeld The Cadaver Society Conference Room. Although the Cadaver Society might not be seen more than 3 or 4 times a year, their presence to this day remains known throughout Campus. A room in the library named after the Cadaver Society comes to show the impact the Society has had on campus, and remains to have. In the 3 media items below, is one of the supposed entrances to the Cadaver tunnels, while the other two are the tunnels that run underneath Washington and Lee campus which are rumored to be how the Cadavers get around at night. Nobody can say for certain what exactly the Secret Society does nowadays, nor if the entrances and tunnels are actually used, but what the public can agree on, is that the society is extremely secret and mysterious. Compared to the past hundred years, the Secret Societies that we see on campus, predominately the Cadaver Society, remains to be a very secretive and exclusive society. The students on campus will always create some sort of rumor about what the societies do or don't do, but nobody, at least for now, will be able to confirm what secret societies do.
