Campaniling is one of UNI’s oldest Homecoming traditions, starting shortly after the construction of the campanile was completed in the ’20s. Despite the near extinction of the tradition in the ’60s, campaniling is still carried out to this day. Every year on the Friday of Homecoming Week, students gather under the campanile, the university’s clock tower. They then wait for the bells to strike midnight.
Once the campanile begins to ring students find someone to share a kiss with. This tradition has been carried out in different ways throughout the years. Campaniling began as a way for male students to court female students. Men would call the women’s dorms and wait for someone to answer, and once someone answered, they would ask to meet them under the campanile at a specific time.
As devious as it was, men would then hide in the bushes and wait for the secret woman to come to the campanile. He would look at her before deciding if he wanted to come out and meet the girl or stay hiding in the bushes until she left. This tradition caught on, as many female students saw it equal to share a kiss in the shadow of the campanile.
As time went on, the campaniling tradition fizzled out. By the ’70s, many students never heard of the tradition. It wasn’t until 1979 that the Alumni Association pushed for the tradition to make a comeback. The event was widely publicized that year, leading to 500 students gathering under the campanile on the Friday of Homecoming to share a midnight kiss.
Campaniling has evolved since its comeback, picking up new variations of the tradition to involve everyone. UNI Senior Elli Mandernach said that she celebrates campaniling a little differently. Mandernach hangs out by the campanile, listening to the music and talking with her friends. When it gets close to midnight, she and her friends hand out Hershey’s chocolate kisses to the students who are not participating in the traditional campanile kiss.
2014 UNI graduate, Jordan Cornwell, said she would hang out with friends at the campanile and hand out chapsticks and buttons to commemorate the experience. “I love the involvement from different people and relationships that come together that night … it isn’t rare to see a hug between friends or a proposal between a couple”
Another way students take on the tradition is to kiss the campanile itself. A 2009 alumni explained that she would attend campaniling with her friends every year, but not participate. However, during her senior year Homecoming, she thought it was about time she shared a kiss. Once the campanile struck midnight she gave the campanile a quick peck. CAB now hosts a dance party at the campanile, allowing students who might not be interested in kissing strangers to have some fun with their friends.
Anyone who has been on a UNI campus tour might have heard the warning of the campanile kiss. The legend goes that if a UNI student does not participate in the campanile tradition at least once while attending school at UNI, then a brick will come flying out from the Campanile and hit their head.
There have been slight variations of this story. Some say that if you kiss someone under the campanile and a brick does not come flying down on you, then they are the one for you. Others say you must participate every year or a brick will come flying toward you. Whether that legend has any truth, or a simple story to persuade a lady for a kiss, this fun tradition continues to excite students during Homecoming Week.
