“If your roommate dies, you get a 4.0”: Reclaiming rumor with burke and organizational culture

The study argues for a reconsideration of rumor from an interpretive perspective. The study articulates a theoretical perspective that combines organizational culture with Burke's guilt‐purification‐redemption cycle. The perspective is then used to study the rumor, “If your roommate dies, you get a 4.0.” The study concludes that students use the rumor to make sense of and to cope with problematic aspects of their university‐life pertaining to roommates, academic pressures, and hierarchical relations between students and the university administration.