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→Informal institutions
*'''Post-OEW beer and pretzels (September-May)''': Every week after OEW we have beer and pretzels (or in more recent semesters, fancy cheese and high grade wine). It has become the norm that '''second years are in charge''' of procuring and bringing the amenities. The beer should be cold. You must bring pretzels although no one eats them. You must not bring fat-free chips.
*'''Welcome dinner (September)''': After some OEW at the start of the semester we all go to a local restaurant and have a big dinner. It is a good time to catch up about the summer, and generally stuff our faces.
*'''Williamson Society ''' (has varied, but tends to be in the '''Spring'''): Once a year, students who have passed their orals since the last Society meeting are '''inducted into the Williamson Society''', where they take the formal secret pledge and are awarded with a wooden [[Williamson (1999) - Public And Private Bureaucracies#The Schema |TCE schema]]. The Society meeting is often led by an alumnus of the program, who speaks of the importance of BPP in his/her career. Each cohort of students then '''prepares a skit, game or song where they “roast” the new inductees'''. In the past, a cohort may also '''roast BPP professors'''. We then have a big party. '''The third years''' (who will take their orals at the end of the year) are '''in charge''' of the administration of the Society meeting, but again, each individual class is in charge of its own skit.
*'''BPP Holiday Party (December)''': BPP traditionally has a holiday party at a faculty member’s house, oftentimes after the last OEW. Sometimes faculty shirk on this responsibility'''. It’s our job to remind them.
*'''Post second-year exam bowling (Mid summer)''': Soon after 2nd year exams, '''the first years typically organize''' a pizza and bowling night to congratulate second years. We reserve a couple of lanes at Albany Bowl and drink lots of Bud Light.
Also, one of the most important informal institutions is simply hanging around the office and talking about research with colleagues. Alums have identified this as the biggest part of their BPP experience.
==Formal institutions==
