‘Watch where you step’: Diag ‘M’ tradition lasts 70 years

The Michigan Daily’s Campus Life Beat organized an interactive map of places to visit throughout campus and Ann Arbor, along with important traditions to participate in before graduating. Find the rest of the project here.

There’s a place on campus that has seen the highs and lows of student life. Left untouched despite heavy traffic in the 10 minutes between classes, the block ‘M’ on the Diag has remained virtually unchanged since its installation. A pillar of the campus community, its bronze cover, now turning green with age, has seen candlelit vigils, countless protests and the roars of students coming together for Diag snowball fights. Despite all of this, students still avoid directly stepping on the block ‘M’, adhering to the superstition that stepping on it means failing your first blue book exam. The Michigan Daily set out to ask the following question: Is there truth to the legend?

The block ‘M’ has only adorned the Diag for 70 years. Installed on May 8, 1953, to replace a previous brick design, the block ‘M’ was presented to former University President Harlan Hatcher on three days later as a gift to the University from the class of 1953. When presenting the block ‘M,’ John Flynn, chairman of the Senior Board, told The Daily freshmen were prohibited from stepping on it until they completed one full year of school. Just a few years later, 1958 orientation leaders were warning new students against ever stepping on the block ‘M’ before an exam. 

LSA freshman Matthew Peal, who works as a campus tour leader for the University, told The Daily though prospective students tend to laugh off the tradition when he tells them about it, others show some fear of the consequences.

“Usually, it seems more of a myth to them at the moment,” Peal said. “(They think,) ‘OK that’s cool, students just stay away from it,’ but maybe when they come and realize, ‘Oh wow, I actually have a blue book exam, this is something I need to stay away from.’ ”

If students happen to step on the block ‘M,’ legend dictates they must run naked from the steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library to the pumas outside of the Museum of Natural History before the Burton Memorial Tower chimes 12 times at midnight. Due to a change to a computerized system in the 1980s, the tower no longer sounds at midnight. If the tower still rang at midnight, students would need to run roughly half a mile in 10-15 seconds, a physically impossible feat even for Olympic athletes. 

Though he faces skepticism from his visitors, Peal said he fully believes in the tradition and has not stepped on the block ‘M.’

“Every time I walk through the Diag, I always think of my next exam, my next blue book exam that’s coming up,” Peal said. “(It) puts a little bit of fear into me.”

LSA freshman Teaghan Lathers told The Daily she was worried about failing her exam after unintentionally stepping on the block ‘M’ once. 

“I stepped on the ‘M’ the first time while I was on a phone call, and I freaked out because I had a Spanish quiz the next day,” Lathers said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to fail.’ I did fine on the quiz and realized that it’s just a superstition.”

After her experience, Lathers said she has deliberately stepped on the block ‘M’ while campus groups were around.

“I’ve accidentally stepped on (the block ‘M’) a few times since then, and then I started getting into the habit of stepping on it intentionally when there (are) Campus Day tour groups because I think it’s funny that they’re talking about the ‘M,’ and I’m completely unbothered by it,” Lathers said.

LSA sophomore Gwynn Bell told The Daily he likes to imagine the tradition was made to protect the integrity of the block ‘M’ from students walking across it.

“My headcanon is that the regents made up the superstition,” Bell said. “(They) indoctrinate students at orientation so the block (‘M’) doesn’t wear out and need replacement.”

In fact, the block ‘M’ has undergone renovations due to conventional wear and tear, most recently in the summer of 2019.

Though most students make their best efforts to avoid it, whether out of habit or to adhere to the tradition, the block ‘M’ has become an important symbol of the campus community and the centerpiece of the Diag. 

Kareem Rifai, Central Student Government communications director, wrote in an email to The Daily that CSG considers the block ‘M’ as an important gathering place for campus-wide events.

“The Diag represents the symbolic center of campus life,” Rifai wrote. “As a means to ensure that our programming reaches as many students as possible, CSG often uses the Diag to host our events.”

During the University’s annual football rivalry week with Michigan State University, U-M fraternity Theta Xi keeps a 24-hour vigil over the block ‘M’ in order to protect it from MSU students in an event known as “Defend the Diag.” While students from MSU used to vandalize the block ‘M’ since 1998, a 2000 Letter to the Editor from then LSA sophomore Brian Groesser called on students to protect the block ‘M’ in the nights leading up to the rivalry game. Since then, Theta Xi has used their annual vigil event to fundraise for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

While Peal diligently avoids stepping on the block ‘M,’ he said his adherence to the tradition makes him feel connected to his place at the University.

“Every time I go through the Diag,” Peal said. “It brings me back to, ‘Wow I’m at the University (of Michigan).”

Daily Staff Reporters Joshua Nicolson and Shao Hsuan Wu can be reached at joshuni@umich.edu and wjeannie@umich.edu.