Rat Week was a freshman hazing ritual on the West Georgia College campus that began approximately in the 1930s and ended in 1969. Rat Week was a hazing ritual used to initiate freshmen to campus during the fall quarter. Many college campuses had a similar tradition where freshmen would be forced to wear a signifier, usually a hat, that marked them as separate from the rest of the college community. The costume used on the West Georgia College campus changed over the years—morphing from dressing as comic strip characters and painting “RAT” across the face to wearing a hat or a string tail. Under upperclassmen supervisors, the freshmen would clean windows, the tennis courts, school buses, and do other campus chores. There were also events on and off campus during the week that included a parade, a mock trial followed by an execution, and a “shotgun wedding."