Whether or not you believe in the moon landing, conspiracy theories exist and can play a prominent role in people’s lives. I’ve gathered a few conspiracy theories over the years and I thought I’d share one about Dickinson College. It’s not going to make you rethink your entire life, but it will get you thinking about something you may not have thought of before.
When I came to visit Dickinson, I had heard that if you step on the seal while touring, you won’t get into Dickinson. Similarly, when I arrived on campus on my first day of college, I heard that if you step on the seal, you will not graduate. So like every other student, I avoided stepping on the seal.
One day I was walking past the seal and I was thinking about how crazy it was to believe that stepping on a hunk of metal could cause you not to graduate. Of course, I am not willing to test this theory just in case it is true, but I wanted to know how this legend came to be. I started theorizing and here is my conclusion: there must be some reason why someone doesn’t want people to step on the seal. The first random thought that popped into my head was that if people step on the seal, they will discover there is an underground tunnel system beneath it.
There are several flaws in my conspiracy theory. First, I am not exactly sure where the tunnel system leads or where the entrances and exits are. I figure that one should be over by the Kline, one by Denny, and certainly one near the president’s house and inside Old West, but I can’t be sure. Second, I don’t know who uses this tunnel system. At one moment in time, I was convinced the secret societies used them, but without knowing where the tunnels lead, this seems impractical. What would be stopping members of a secret society from simply walking to their meetings?
The third and biggest flaw is that in December, the seal was temporarily removed and I saw that there was no immediate underground tunnel system. However, this didn’t stop me from thinking of new answers. I am still convinced there is an underground tunnel system somewhere below Dickinson’s campus, but maybe that isn’t the reason why students are told not to step on the seal. I am not ready to completely abandon this conspiracy theory, but I am grateful that it got me thinking about something people don’t often consider even if it is something silly and ridiculous.