The International Society of Shifters

Does anyone know how the shifters may be contacted? Many collegiate societies have a drop off point where letters can be left in order to reach the general membership. Or is there a particular student/faculty member who may be contacted?

Even though this thread is pretty much dead I have a little bit of information to add.

I'm a student at Wittenberg, and I know about 5 or 6 Wizards that are in my fraternity. Wizard's designated party night is Tuesday; that's a fact. I have one specific detail about the families within the Wizards.

One night during my pledge process, I had to get an interview with one of the upper classmen in the frat, and we scheduled it at mid night on Tuesday. I went to his house and he wasn't there, so I called him and he was obviously drunk, and told me to meet him in my car outside my dorm. He showed up in a vest labeled Griffendore (or however you spell it) and had Harry Potter-looking glasses on. At this point, I had no clue what his outfit meant, but it makes sense now that I understand the whole family aspect of the Wizards.

I also know that the Wizards have been trying to pry off the university seal in front of Myers. Earlier this semester, I would walk to class at about 10:15 on Wednesday morning and would pass the seal every day. About three weeks in a row, the small bricks surrounding the seal were obviously tampered with, and one brick is still missing. There were also marks on the surrounding cement which looked like someone had taken a crowbar to it. I've heard rumors that they actually have something similar to a small room under the seal, but I highly doubt it considering the university just did construction on it last year.

I also know three gnomes that are in my frat. I believe their party night is Monday or Tuesday, but I'm not sure.

I don't know much about the shifters, although they are by far the most interesting of all the groups. I do know that if you have a parent that was a shifter, you have a very good chance of getting tapped. Also, shifter alumni love to come back on homecoming weekend and attend the shifter party.

As for the tunnels, I want to make it clear that they did not construct these tunnels themselves. They are simply a drainage/heating and cooling tunnels that run under campus. The main opening is on the northwest side of Weaver Chapel just off the street that runs between Myers Hall and the chapel. I haven't actually tried to break into it, but I have taken a close look at the opening. There is a large metal bar that covers the opening, but I didn't tamper with it. From what everyone else has said, it obviously hard to break into. I would assume that there is a lock on it considering the shifters have access to basically every key on campus.

If I have anything to say about the secret societies, it's this. They aren't much more than over-hyped drinking clubs. The fact that they hold closed parties, wear conspicuous flair, and sometimes do ridiculous public stunts means that they want to have people talk about them. Although they're secret, they are attention seekers and get off to the fact that people talk about them like we are on this thread. I'll admit that they are pretty interesting, especially since so many of their actions are highly illegal, and could result in school suspension or expulsion if they get caught, but it's nothing to get too excited about. If I find anymore info, I'll make sure to post it on here.

Its been a few years since I was at Witt, but this is pretty hilarious to me. I wasn't in the Shifters, but I hung out with a number of people that were (including people that were high up on the "Winnie the Pooh" totem pole). The shifters are impressive in a few regards - 1) They've been around for a while (unlike, e.g., the gnomes, which was started by one of my friends) 2) They have a traditional house where members often live (near Station One) 3) They somehow manage to decorate the statutes on the chapel tower with hats and the like (its not clear how this is done).

Are the members into something nefarious? Perhaps they'd like you to think that - but the reality of the matter is they're just a club - and if you're worried about them, I'd find something better to do with your time. This isn't the skull and bones.

Oh, and as for many of the other secret societies on campus - unless something has changed, they're basically excuses for getting intoxicated, with ritual sometimes thrown into the mix. Its a college after all!

reply to post by trashflavored

"The society badge serves as an invitation to flirtation and to intimacies that self-respecting girls would resent."

Sounds like it's another chapter of a Hash House Harrier's kennel.
You may want to start researching this cult and see how it might compare. As far as I can say from what I've researched, H3 is all about getting rid of morals, using alcohol to reward and punish, and subjecting members to pain and humiliation.

reply to post by bengolf10

Hello I attend Witt now and was wondering if you have more info on the tunnels....I heard there are tunnels in ferncliff leading to the cemetery?
I want to know where the tunnels are in the cemetery and also I want to know what days they are there and the hours and what they wear. Also I would like to know what they consider a good attitude..do they have anything to do with the Freemasons bacause Springfield is a huge Freemason meeting area and they have their owe eastern star temple(for females?)
Do they have to do with the silver bullets? Is Wittenberg a huge freemason breakin zone?
I need to know what that they do and why? And how bug it is.

I know this is an old thread, but I only just uncovered it this evening. I am also a Witt alum having graduated some 20 years ago. Apparently in that time not much has changed regarding the mystique of The Shifters. Everything I have read here was true back then as well: the selective recruitment, the paperclip adornment, the odd thumbs-up whistling ritual, even the interaction with the plant life in the CDR. The tunnel story was also alive and well then, as was the notion that Winnie The Pooh was the key to unlocking "the secret." Even the connection to The Underground Railroad was talked about then.

To know Wittenberg is to understand it is layers and layers of inter-mingled cliques within the one umbrella clique of the Wittenberg community. It is a small, liberal arts college with an annual enrollment of about 2,000 (about 1,100 when I attended). If there was some truly sinister element to any social organization on campus--official or unofficial--it would be common knowledge. No secret that big could survive long in such an inter-laced community of that size.

Witt is also not an Ivy League or otherwise elitist school where one may find a truly dark societal pocket like Skull and Bones. It is an eclectic mix of students ranging from low-income to middle class to affluent and there are always any number of organizations and more loosely formed social groups to which one can belong, even if he or she is not offered membership in a more exclusive club such as The Shifters or cannot afford membership in the Greek system on campus.

Having known many individuals tapped for membership in The Shifters, and known the type of people they were, the exclusivity based on having "the right attitude" makes perfect sense. I was not a Shifter and remembering who and how I was back then, there is no way I was unjustly passed over by them.

So what if they wear their paperclips and put their coats on backwards and march around whistling, "You Are My Sunshine?" They're not donning hoods and carrying torches and sacrificing virgins or small animals in Ferncliff Cemetery at The Witching Hour or anything like that.

Them knowing what they're about when everyone else doesn't is what bonds them within their particular group. I never knew a Shifter to look down his or her nose at me and I socialized with many of them. Wittenberg, as an institution, has always been about contributing something of yourself to the larger whole. My guess is prospective Shifters (or "Boomers," apparently) are identified as people most likely to be both successful and giving of themselves in some way in the future, whether to the school or society in general.

Despite the sometimes unfortunate social occurrences that take place, most of the official organizations at Wittenberg--including the Greek houses--operate in some philanthropic capacity. I doubt it is any different with The Shifters, albeit more under that veil of secrecy with which everyone is so intrigued.

most of the shifters l knew were friendly, but not very nice people, and indeed what you will find in alot of these midwestern type private schools is precisely people who are superficially nice but may have bad intentions or have 0 desire to help anyone actually in need. theyre also the same people who love spreading rumors about others, looking down on others, and call you a townie