Pre-Hey Day picnic planned for juniors

The Office of Student Life and the 1994 Class Board will hold a picnic for the junior class immediately before next Friday's Hey Dey procession to celebrate their new senior status. Usually the procession bears more of a similarity to a stagger than a march, as the entire class expresses its unity through general inebriation. But that won't be the case this year. "Students have been complaining . . . that the alcohol restrictions from the [Liquor Control Enforcement agency] and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have been restricting their social lives, and that the administration needs to recognize the need to put more resources towards social programming, and that's what the administration's doing," Fran Walker, director of student life activities and facilities, said last night. The alcohol-free picnic, tentatively scheduled to be held from noon to 3 p.m. on Hill Field, will be funded by a $10,000 donation from the University's administration, Walker said. The picnic will put a new twist on Hey Day traditions, as juniors will get their traditional "equipment" of hats and canes at the picnic itself -- making picnic attendance mandatory for those who want to participate in the tradition. "They're going to have the pick up of hats and canes at Hill Field as an incentive for people to come," Walker said. "We'll be giving out the shirts on the Walk so that everyone can come dressed rather than having to dress in the middle of Hill Field," she added. Traditionally, juniors begin drinking early on Hey Day morning with hats and canes in hand. In the past students have been able to pick up the hats and canes days before Hey Day. The decision to have the picnic was made by the newly-elected Senior Class Board on the night of their election, when they were informed of the administration's donation, according to board members. Class President Matt Canner said he hopes the event will encourage more drinking responsibility. "If people want to drink, they'll drink prior to the picnic or what have you," Canner said. "Hopefully, it will alleviate problems and we won't find anyone in the emergency room this year." "How people celebrate Hey Day outside of the ceremony is an individual choice," Walker said. Canner said that by the end of the week, the board will decide which student band will perform at the picnic, where there will be free food for the junior class. Although the board would like this to be a new Hey Day tradition to increase class unity, old Hey Day traditions will emerge from the change unscathed. The red-shirted Class of 1994 will follow the Penn Band from Hill Field to the Junior Balcony in the Quad at about 3 p.m., from where they will continue in the traditional procession down the Walk to College Hall, taking bites out of each others' hats along the way.

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