The Cedar Lake walk and other Cedarville dating lore

Every campus has its folklore, and Cedarville's most famous piece is the lake walk. The lake walk dating joke comes down to one line. Here is what it says, where it was written down, and what else students have joked about.

Most of what is written down comes from a single source: a March 2018 piece in the student paper, the Cedars, on dating at Cedarville. It is one writer's snapshot from several years ago.

The thrice-around-the-lake theory

The Cedars piece put it this way: any male-female duo seen walking three times around Cedar Lake must be dating. The idea is that walking Cedar Lake three times in a row is how a couple gives itself away.

It works as a joke because on a small campus people notice who spends time together. The same article listed a walk, including a walk around the lake, among the acceptable campus dates, and more than a dozen students named it. The joke and the habit live side by side.

The argument over what counts as a date

The 2018 article also noted that many students hold that a real date needs an off-campus setting. It cited a senior who insisted that going to Chuck's with someone of the opposite sex does not count, and she repeated the point for emphasis.

That points to a quiet piece of Cedarville campus lore: a lot of invitations stay ambiguous on purpose. Is it a date, a hangout, or a friendly meal? Students were happy to debate it then, and the question still gets asked.

The article's poll showed some of the mood. Of 642 respondents, 15% said they would prefer a date on campus. Over 30 said a date on campus was entirely out of the question.

Campus outings with a little ambiguity

Students in the article named ALT Nights, ice skating, and Cedarville concerts or plays as campus activities that could pass for a date. ALT Nights are campus-wide weekend events a few times a semester, with things like laser tag, a movie and food trucks. They are a good example of a plan that could be a date or a group night, which suits a campus where nobody wants to commit to the label too early.

Traditions that give people something to do together

Cedarville has other shared traditions that regularly bring people together. The Homecoming cardboard canoe race takes place on Cedar Lake, and Printy Wars, a residence hall competition running since 2002, ends in a tug of war. Neither is a date event, but both give students a shared story, and shared stories are how most relationships start here.

What the lore tells you

A few things hold up from all this:

• People notice who spends time together, so plans get talked about.
• A clear invitation helps. If you mean it as a date, say so kindly.
• Off-campus plans, like coffee in the village or a drive to Yellow Springs, tend to read as more intentional. See our list of date ideas near Cedarville.

A modern note

If the lake walk is the old way of finding out who is interested, an app is a new one. Cedar Mingle is an independent app for Cedarville students, not affiliated with the university, and it works differently: the chat opens only when both people like each other, so nobody has to count laps.