Digs Formals are a relatively hidden part of life at Rhodes, despite the fact that many students do participate in them. When you breathlessly tell people that you’re going to a ‘digs formal’, the reception in often decidedly less excited, often met with uncomprehending blank stares. However those that know about them either warn you off or give you a knowing smile. Let me attempt to explain what ‘digs formals’ are.
At some point during the year, a digs will decide to have a party, where each person living in the house gets a date (either someone they know or a blind date). It is the responsibility of each digs mate to ensure they all have dates, even if this means asking a random person in the photocopy room to attend a few hours before. With the dates secured, a theme must be chosen, i.e. ‘Dress to get laid’ (one of the more controversial ones). More alcohol than is humanly possible to consume (except in a Rhodes context) is bought and the stage is set. Everyone nervously arrives, drinks some punch to settle the nerves and ‘let the games begin’ so to speak. It is these games that give ‘digs formals’ their notoriety and often cause those participating (especially female students) to feel highly uncomfortable the morning after. These games include ‘group lunge’, where you are expected to kiss your partner (who you must likely won’t even know), body shots, and lap dances et cetera. Click here to read a student’s perspective on digs parties.
While this may be to most the most interesting aspect of ‘digs formals’ (especially since we’re all so sex obsessed), we identified another aspect as noteworthy: race. The trend seems to be that mostly white students attend these parties, with black students being mostly among those unaware of the tradition. At first we thought this may be because more white students live in digs. However, statistics compiled especially for us by the university said otherwise.
Interestingly, digs life is more popular amongst women at Rhodes, with more women than men in digs across each race group.
Warden Gordon Barker, who oversees students living in digs thought it might be due to the fact that economically black students rent rooms, instead of a digs with friends for the year. Therefore, the vibe needed for a digs tradition might not be present.
[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/gordon-filled.mp3[/podcast]
The issue needs more research for a conclusive answer. Until then students will continue to get drunk and debaucherous at ‘digs formals’.