In our final semester at Iowa State, we took it upon ourselves to contribute something more to our great university and engage in the tradition of April Fool’s Day. We attempted to alter a custom students have intrinsically adopted and decided to observe the actions of our fellow students if they were forced to walk across the zodiac at the entrance of the Memorial Union. We understand that Iowa State is strongly ingrained with traditions, such as not to walk across the zodiac for the fear of failing his or her next exam.

We took some sandwich boards outside the MU entrance and blocked the path around the Zodiac in such a way that passersby would be forced to walk over it.

About 40 to 50 students walked through the entrance during our 15-minute observation.

Some people walked across totally unperturbed, paying no attention to the barrier.

Others, on the other hand, stopped and saw the obstacles, but eventually walked across with some trepidation.

Most of the students observed fell into this group. The third group recognized the obstacles but did not want to walk across the Zodiac. Instead, this group attempted to walk though the barriers by weaving through the sandwich boards. Only a small number of people made any attempt to disrupt the barriers, making a path to walk around the zodiac.

We can comment on the resulting behavior of the students from an overall standpoint. It is amusing how, in our short time at Iowa State, we can be socialized to behave in such a way as to abandon all reason when walking over a mere symbol on the floor, and instead carefully consider what actions we should take to overcome an imaginary boundary.

Kendal Foss

Senior

Chemical engineering

Koda Sanborn

Senior

Industrial technology