Stewards?

[98hoya]

I recently learned that there is a secret society at G'town called the Stewards. Having graduated from the school in the 90s, I never even heard a whisper of such a group existing. Is this real, or not? What's it all about?

[Boz]

We're not allowed to talk about it.

God, I haven't heard about the Stewards in years. What a laugh riot they were (are?).

News of the Stewards first broke publicly at Georgetown in the 87-88 year, I think. I could be off by a year or two, give or take.

[98hoya]

OK, so I didn't miss something major here? I was wondering if we had our own Skull & Bones that I somehow missed ever hearing about. It sounds like that isn't the case.

[theexorcist]

Kinda sorta. The Stewards always seemed to be a group that aspired to Skull and Bones or the Sevens. Their big thing is "protecting Georgetown traditions". Stewards are big into the Academy (if that still exists), Philodemic, and the 1115 Sunday night Mass.

[hilltopper2000]

There was a big controversy when they dedicated the clock in red square to a steward. Note the two keys on the plack. I don't know if they still operate but one of my good friends at GU was a member. Hardly Skull & Bones -- no island or presidents or anything.

[98hoya]

Was Bubba a Steward?

[strummer8526]

Oh it still exists, up through class of '07. It's pretty hilarious, overall. A whole lot of people need to stop pretending they're important and actually do something that might BE important. But it gives complete toolboxes something to aspire to.

[DrumsGoBang]

They might of had a stone plaque in the bushes by the library.

[Cambridge]

The Stewards are such a ridiculous joke that my friends and I spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to uncover the "mysteries." Mostly, our quest started when my longtime friend, and the former editor and chief of the Hoya, was "tapped," but turned them down.

There are actually two separate Stewards societies. There is the first and the thirds. Both are meant to be composed of the leaders of most major school groups. The first are much more orthodox, heavier catholic influence, reluctant to admit women or minorities. The thirds are "reformed" and admit women and minorities. Their initiates are tapped around the end of junior or beginning of senior year. They often have a key tattooed on their ankles.

My information comes from a big stinkup while I was at school (98-02) in which the Hoya editorial board basically purged all Stewards. There were a lot of people they didn't even suspect as Stewards. This was spurred on because one of the stewards accidentally left an initiate's "application" or "nomination" form in one of the copiers on campus. The Hoya printed the whole thing, which included a masthead that listed officers.

Also, the whole conflict over control of The Hoya, the existence of The Academy and the Crosses in the Classroom controversies were all big Steward's initiatives.

[Bando]

drumsgobang said:

They might of had a stone plaque in the bushes by the library.

We stole that fair and square.

[HoyaNyr320]

A good friend of mine who lived on my freshman floor in Harbin (he's a frequent poster on this board, and I'll leave it up to him if he wants to reveal himself as the subject of this story) found an envelope that had been put under his door with a key and some instructions to appear at a certain time at a certain place on campus with the key to accept the invitation or to return the key to a specific mailbox to deny the invitation. Fortunately, my friend returned the key.

[hoyatables]

Marge : Homer, a man who called himself "you-know-who" just invited you to a secret "wink-wink" at the "you-know-what". You are certainly are popular now that you've become a Stonecutter.
Homer : Oh, yeah. Beer busts, beer blasts, keggers, stein hoists, AA meetings, beer night. It's wonderful, Marge. I've never felt so accepted in all my life. These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

The keys are fairly significant. They give them to the people that they have invited to become stewards.

[DrumsGoBang]

I think that the keys opened up a special room.

Inside that room is............

Ninjas?
Gay Orgy?
Jimmy Hoffa's Body?
A Collection of Pope Hats?
Michael Vick's Dog Fighting ring?

Since they are the stewards I'm going to have to go with Gay Orgy.

[sead43]

There are "inscriptions" of keys left by the stewards at various locations around campus. near white gravenor and in the Tunnels are the two places i can think of.

[nodak89]

some background reading from THE HOYA

www.thehoya.com/viewpoint/102700/view3.htm

www.thehoya.com/viewpoint/102000/view3.htm

www.thehoya.com/news/031904/news4.cfm

[Filo]

boz1 said:

We're not allowed to talk about it.

God, I haven't heard about the Stewards in years. What a laugh riot they were (are?).

News of the Stewards first broke publicly at Georgetown in the 87-88 year, I think. I could be off by a year or two, give or take.

I had the same sentiment. I think you have the timing about right.

A few friends were stewards, a few others probably felt insulted that they were not invited, and the rest of us lacked what I guess is some sort of self-importance gene so we just got a big kick out of the whole thing.

Interesting to hear that there are two factions now. Had to be some unintended comedy going on there...

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I hear that they split up due to self-internal jealousy.

[Coast2CoastHoya]

Anybody remember the anti-Stewards that began in 2000 or 2001? Their name was a four-letter acronym but I can't remember all four. Pure comedy.

[98hoya]

Very interesting! How'd I miss all this stuff when I was on campus? The only mysteries when I was there were Lev Babiev and the "Resist Academic Tyranny" guy (once again, I considered dressing as him for Halloween, now 500 miles and 10+ years removed - chances are everyone I encountered on Halloween night would just be confused, but in case there was a single mid-90s Gtown alum in my neighborhood, they would get the laugh of a lifetime when they saw that inside joke).

So, I found the info on the Stewards very interesting and did some googling to learn more...and get this: apparently there are two OTHER secret societies at G'town that I'd also never heard of: "Clock & Dagger" and "Order of the Cross and Circle." Anyone ever heard of these guys?

(here's the link that lists these groups: members.fortunecity.com/ticketyboo/ssuni.htm)

There was a whole 'nother world that I missed out on, apparently...