Quadding: A Painful Former Aggie Corp Tradition

While there are many traditions that cultivate positive memories among the Corp, there remain past traditions that revoke painful recollections, such as quadding. Quadding was a practice in the Corp of Cadets where a white belt, a junior or senior cadet, would choose another member of equal to lower rank and instruct a freshman in their outfit to harness that individual to a chair and bring them to the Quadrangle. Here the person would have large trash cans of water poured from the third floor on their head. The pouring of the water from such altitude made this an immensely painful process for the person being Quadded as there often was not have adequate time to catch one’s breath in between pours. One Cadet subject to this ill treatment was Major Gen. Jake Betty ’73 who after calling his fellow junior member of the Corp unintelligible and poorly disciplined he found himself being quadded for forty days.

Although the origins of this tradition remain unclear it is understood that the Corp used quadding to reprimand and a way to keep Cadets in line. At present quadding has been strictly prohibited not only by the university, but in the state of Texas as a result of anit-hazing laws. Although an uneasy tradition to call attention to, the uncomfortable parts of the university’s past are worthy of attention as they teach valuable lessons.