1. Fountain Hopping

• Although it would be interesting to just visit all of the campus fountains, by fountain hopping, I mean literally hopping INTO the fountain, and several of them! OU has fountains by the dorms, next to the Union, behind the admin building (one was even built especially as a drinking fountain for canine visitors), and even on top of buildings. Everyone should visit each fountain at least once while they’re at OU and learn about what makes each one unique. (Example? My friends and I learned that the Class of ’35 fountain is heated.)

2. The Stacks

• The Bizzell library is massive—large enough that it contains the bulk of OU Libraries’ 5 million volumes. They have to keep all of those books somewhere, right? Enter the Stacks. There are several floors full of shelf after shelf of books on any topic imaginable. The Stacks make a fun place to peruse and examine the different books, but they also make it easy to imagine yourself in a horror movie where there are creepy things lurking in between the rows. (Legend has it that they’re haunted, of course.) With the glass floors and endless shelves, everyone has to spend time in the Stacks.

3. Avoiding the Spoonholder and Clock Tower

• The two myths that are most widely believed by Sooners are those of the Spoonholder and the Clock Tower. The Spoonholder, located on the North Oval, has a very interesting but not widely known history (YOU can read about it here). What every student does know, however, is that if you kiss a girl inside of the Spoonholder, you are destined to marry her. Needless to say, boys shy away from the Spoonholder until they’re ready to pull out the ring box. The smart students on campus also avoid the clock tower, located by the new wing of Bizzell Library. Legend has it that if you walk underneath the clock, you are cursed and won’t graduate in the standard four years. Respect the tradition, future Sooners. On my first night at OU, I decided to be ‘cool’ and nonchalantly stroll underneath the clock. Now, I found out at enrollment advising that my recent major-change will require a fifth year of studies. At least if I have to take five years to graduate, I’ll graduate with a degree from OU! Boomer!

4. Late-Night Crossroads

• Crossroads is the 24/7 restaurant on the bottom floor of the student union. It is the literal crossroads of campus where students from every major, background, and personality type converge together to eat good food at all hours of the day (mostly in the wee hours of the night.) All of Crossroads’ food is delicious, but I have three words for you that you will be repeating often once you get here: hot chocolate cobbler.

5. Studying in the Great Reading Room

• The Great Reading Room is the university’s pièce de résistance, if you will. I’m sure that most of you have stepped inside if only for a moment during your campus tour. (If you haven’t taken a tour yet, be sure to schedule one today!) The majesty and grandeur of the room is enough to inspire even the laziest students to put their nose to the books. In other words, everyone should study in the Great Reading Room at least once. A word of warning: inhabitants of this room expect dead quiet—no talking, backpack zipping, coughing, and definitely no pen clicking.