Juniors get ready to become seniors

As juniors all over campus purchase bright red shirts,it becomes more and more apparent that Hey Day -- the classic day when juniors become seniors -- is almost upon the University. And it will descend like a swarm of styrofoam-hatted locusts on Friday, as the Class of 1994 participates in this tradition of transition and a new junior class picnic. This year marks the beginning of a class-wide picnic to be held from noon to 3 p.m. on Hill Field -- a party which Class of 1994 board members said they hope will become a tradition of its own. Juniors said that they are looking forward to the event. "I'm excited for it, since it'll give me a chance to be with all my classmates, but I'm sad about it because it's a symbol that we just have one more year left," College junior Shiva Sarram said. "I think I speak for most [almost]-seniors when I say that." Using a grant of $10,000 from the University administration, the picnic will have food and entertainment for the class' masses -- and all of the necessary equipment of hats and canes, making the event mandatory for those who wish to comply with tradition. The event -- alcohol-free -- is also meant to keep drinking under control, since drinking from dawn to dusk is an informal, but universally-recognized, Hey Day tradition. Students said that picnic or no picnic, juniors will somehow find a way to engage in the usual inebriation. "I have no problem with [the picnic], but I think people are going to drink regardless," College junior Sonita Midha said. "If people just give it a chance, it could be a nice thing." "I don't really think the picnic idea is going to work," College junior Judd Goldberg said. "It's a good idea at heart, but students are just going to go there, get their hat and cane and get drunk anyway. "It's really a tradition that students get drunk, and students will find a way," he added. "They're either going to get drunk on Hill Field or outside of Hill Field." Juniors complained that holding the hats and canes at the picnic is a kind of blackmail to ensure attendance. "I like the idea of the picnic, but I don't particularly like the idea that we have to pick up our hats and canes there," College junior Tara Vandergrift said. "I think that people are a little annoyed that they're being forced to attend by the administration." And some students said that the picnic would not alter their drinking as a whole, just the timing of the drinking. "It's not going to prevent anyone from drinking, but it'll just move the drinking earlier or later into the day, or onto Hill Field itself," Wharton junior Ethan Falkove said.

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