Gum Tree tradition sticks with students

The Gum Tree on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University is more than just a tree littered with thousands of chewed pieces of gum up and down the trunk from students after the ascension of Cardiac Hill. The Gum Tree has a fabled history that dates back decades, but no one seems to know the exact origin of the tradition.

The origin of the Gum Tree is undocumented, but Dr. Adam Criblez, assistant professor and director of the Center for Regional History, has done some research on the tree.

"There's different stories that kind of circulate around [the origin]. Obviously, there was no one that documented, 'Hey we're going to start this,'" Criblez said. "It was just completely spontaneous and organic.

"Through the best knowledge I've been able to find, it started because the president [of the university] in the 1960s, president [Mark] Scully, prohibited, or at least seriously frowned upon chewing gum in classrooms or tobacco use or any of that type of stuff. In the 1960s the Towers were built, and students walking from Towers, where they lived, to class, chewing gum on the way, they said 'Oh, I'm not allowed to have this in class,' and what happened -- again, there's no proof of this -- but what happened is one day a student was just like 'Hey!' and stuck their gum to the tree, and it just kind of flowed from that."

Criblez said there likely was never a concentrated effort to get people to stick their chewed gum on the tree, but after a few people did it, it picked up and became what it is today.

The Gum Tree that lives atop Cardiac Hill today is not the original Gum Tree from the 1960s.

"This is Gum Tree at least No. 2," Criblez said. "Now, I also read a story somewhere that there used to be a third Gum Tree perhaps at the same time or earlier, that used to be over right behind where the University Center is. Where Leming Hall used to be. Whether or not that was a Gum Tree or somebody misremembering it 50 years later -- this is Gum Tree 2.0 on this site.

"The first Gum Tree was just like the current one, a rose bud tree. Apparently it was really big, especially for a rose bud that don't typically grow to be that large. It was so covered in thousands of pieces of gum, one of the people I spoke with said that you couldn't tell what was gum and what was maybe oozing out of the tree just because there was so much old gum up there."

The death of the first Gum Tree happened in 1989. Some say a couple of students decided to cut the Gum Tree down as a prank, or it was cut down by the university.

"The Gum Tree in 1989 actually died, and the university had to trim it down because it was a dead tree," regional admissions counselor Dan Presson said.

Regardless of which way it was removed, a student group got together afterward and decided to plant a new Gum Tree, which was donated by a nursery in Jackson to the Reemergence.

"There was a student organization on campus at the time called 'The Reemergence.' They were a group of nontraditional students, and they decided to plant a new Gum Tree. So they had a rededication ceremony in 1989 and planted what [assistant registrar] Julie Gruene-berg described as kind of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree," Criblez said. "Everybody at the ceremony were given pieces of bubble gum, and they chewed them and put them on this little tree. As Julie remembers, the last piece went on the top, and it kind of made the tree bow a little bit, because it was such a small little tree."

There are other theories surrounding the reason people put gum on the tree to begin with.

"Some people say that the Gum Tree started because you're going to slip into cardiac arrest, and other people are like 'Oh, it's the Gum Tree because you're so tired,'" said Dan Tiner, a senior student ambassador. "I've heard that you're so tired that you're just gagging and panting and you don't want your gum."

Another story is that if a person starts to chew a fresh piece of gum at the bottom of Cardiac Hill the gum will lose its flavor by the time the person reaches the top. Instead of throwing the gum away, the person sticks it to the tree.

"I think that was true with older gum. Now it's not true because gum is technologically advanced," Presson said. "There's some fun stories around it."

Southeast's Department of Admissions stopped taking prospective students past the Gum Tree on campus tours a few years ago because shuttles were incorporated into the tours. Recently, the department voted to start touring by the Gum Tree again.

"I think we all just voted that it's kind of a cool, funky little thing that our students do," Presson said. "It's just one of those things that we decided to add to our tour just because it's just fun, and I know high school students think it's fun. So we just decided to add it to our campus tours. We recently added Big Red chewing gum. Red for Southeast. Now, at the end of all of our tours when students are literally about to walk out of [Academic Hall] and go on their tour with their student ambassador, we offer them pieces of gum."

The Gum Tree is a tradition that is surrounded by mystery, but regardless it has been a staple on Southeast's campus for many decades.

"I think it's fun that it's still there, that someone took the time to replant the tree after it died, because it's a fun tradition," said sophomore Alyssa Johnes. "New students get to walk up and stick their nasty little piece of gum on the tree."

"Last year I did it a few times because I lived in Towers," she said. "I think most people just do it once to say they did it."

Pertinent address:

Alta Vista Drive and North Pacific Street, Cape Girardeau, Mo.