Seniors celebrate Ivy Day

Hundreds of seniors gathered in Irvine Auditorium May 14 for what Senior Class President Matthew Canner called one of the University's "oldest and richest traditions" -- Ivy Day. And Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell may have started his own tradition by changing the scheduling of the Ivy Day ceremonies so he could give his keynote address and leave early to attend his son's Pony League baseball game. Rendell, who is "without a doubt, the best mayor in the country today," according to Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson, spoke for less than 10 minutes. After proclaiming that "the best four years of my life were my four years here as an undergraduate," the 1965 University graduate proceeded to announce the "Top Ten Reasons Why It's Great to Get an Ivy Day Award," a la David Letterman. The historic purpose of Ivy Day is to allow students who have made outstanding achievements at the University to be recognized by their peers. The festivities are accompanied by the unveiling of the graduating class's Ivy Day stone and the planting of ceremonial ivy. The Class of 1994 voted on eight traditional "senior awards" which are given out during Ivy Day, four to men and four to women. College and Wharton senior Kaplan Mobray won the Spoon, Wharton senior Sandor Hau picked up the Bowl award, Wharton senior Bill Roberts won the Cane and College senior Morris Massel was awarded the Spade. For the women's prizes, College senior Kirsten Bartok took the Brownlee Award, College senior Jun Bang won the Goddard award, College senior Lisa Deutsch picked up the Harnwell Award, and Wharton senior Jai-Jai Ramsey received the Hottel Award. Several other awards were also given out, including the first annual President and Provost's Award for Community Building which was awarded to editors of The Daily Pennsylvanian and The Vision for the newspapers' two combined series on race relations and free speech at the University. Class of 1969 President James Druckman, who awarded Massel the same Spade award that he once won, said his 25th reunion class was celebrating Ivy Day in a unique manner. It seems the class somehow managed to forget the location of its Ivy Day stone, so it needed to plant a new one. "Our Ivy stone had been torn down and nobody knew where the ivy was so we replanted ours?near the library," he said. Following the Ivy Day ceremonies, the Class of 1994 unveiled its Ivy Day stone, which was placed near Weightman Hall. Massel then used his spade to plant the ceremonial ivy in the same location.