Student life at Baitman’s extends well beyond the classroom. Residence halls, student societies, athletics, campus media, and a rotating calendar of events offer ample opportunity to become involved, whether academically, socially, or by administrative necessity.
Students may join any number of clubs, guilds, and fellowships, or simply spend an afternoon in the library atrium, where conversation is encouraged and persistent unreason is handled according to posted procedure.
However you spend your time here, Baitman’s offers a lively campus community shaped by friendship, curiosity, and traditions whose origins are not always discussed with incoming students.
Published continuously since 1911, with a brief pause during the Great Indexing Error, The Poly Post serves as the Institute’s official student-run newspaper and primary outlet for campus news, reflection, and correction.
Each edition includes faculty commentary, moderated opinion, lightly reviewed field reports, and cultural coverage ranging from fencing meets to philosophical garden thefts. Satire occasionally seeps in, but the paper remains committed to dignity and legibility, at least on even-numbered pages.
Edited, printed, and distributed by students in the basement press suite of Old Maynard Hall, The Poly Post continues its mission of thoughtful communication, principled ambiguity, and mild institutional accountability.
Operating softly since 1932, OPSM 87.6 FM serves as the Institute’s student-run broadcast outlet, transmitting original programming from beneath the east conservatory stairwell, where the acoustics remain oddly ideal.
From late-night symposium coverage to early morning tape-delay discussions on ethical evaporation, OPSM remains a space for student voice, restrained creativity, and the occasional sound check that quietly becomes a scheduled program.
Programming is lightly reviewed, occasionally transcribed, and historically unarchived, making OPSM one of the campus’s most trusted sources of temporary truth. Its signal reaches as far as the third courtyard and portions of parking structure C, depending on weather and administrative need.
Baitman’s Athletics has long embodied the Institute’s enduring philosophy: movement with purpose, competition with restraint, and uniforms that resist modern fabric standards.
Our student-athletes participate in a wide range of historically adjacent sports, from interpretive rowing and gentlemen’s stickball to bare-knuckle boxing and crochet-based croquet. Each team is advised by a dedicated faculty member, many of whom once played semi-professionally or simply never left the field.
With a focus on personal discipline, ambiguous scoring, and above-average pageantry, Baitman’s Athletics provides students with not just exercise, but identity, passed down from one season to the next, mostly unwashed.
Baitman’s offers a wide range of student organizations designed to foster belonging, encourage polite ambition, and occasionally produce minutes. Clubs are formed through tradition, shared interest, or administrative oversight, and span the intellectual, the athletic, the speculative, and the improbable.
Students may choose from longstanding groups like the Poly Historical Society, the Indoor Astronomy Circle, the Ephemeral Band, or the Unified Dice Consortium. New clubs are reviewed by committee and quietly added to the roster once their acronym passes ethics review.
The faculty of Baitman’s Institute are selected not only for their expertise, but for their stamina, stillness, and ability to teach under complex lighting conditions. Many have held the same office for decades, not out of stagnation, but out of profound spatial loyalty.
Drawn from a range of disciplines both recognized and under review, Baitman’s faculty lead by example and meticulous footnote. Office hours are held regularly, occasionally announced, and almost always observed by tradition alone.
Located just beneath the West Rotunda and adjacent to the emergency eyewash station, the Baitman’s Institute Campus Store offers a rotating selection of officially branded apparel, commemorative goods, and lightly compromised academic materials.
Students and guests may browse Baitman’s crested sweatshirts, experimental tote bags, athletics pennants, and the occasional reclaimed textbook bearing only superficial fire damage. Poly the Possum plushes are seasonally available, as are select items from the Institute’s archival vault, all properly tagged and dried.
Store hours remain flexible, with closures occurring during periods of high humidity, inventory shifts, or sudden staff reflection. No bartering permitted. Store credit valid only within store.