GUEST COLUMN: "Penn's Changing Traditions"

As Senior Week draws to a close and alumni begin arriving on campus for a weekend of reunions and parties, the administration, faculty and staff gleefully prepare to add the Class of 1995 to the growing roster of University graduates. When it comes to tradition, there is nothing like Alumni Weekend and Commencement. Anyone who attends these two events can no doubt sense the tradition which so many students and alumni equate with Penn. But as the years pass, the origins of these traditions have been forgotten. The celebrations of today hardly resemble those held 50, or as recently as 25, years ago on campus. For their part, administrators have done little to educate students about the meaning behind traditions and rituals at Penn. But students have also turned what traditions remain into a time to get drunk and escape from academic responsibilities. Take Hey Day and Spring Fling, for example. These two popular traditions are meaningless to most students. And that is a real shame. For me, one of the best parts about Hey Day this year was the opportunity to gather for only the second time as a class and feel a sense of accomplishment for completing three years of my undergraduate education. As I took bites out of friends' hats and banged canes with classmates, I wondered how long these traditions have been in place. I decided to do a little research to find out about this and other Penn traditions. What I discovered was that each of the many popular events on campus have evolved a lot since they were introduced. Hey Day, for example, took its current shape in 1931, replacing Straw Hat Day and Class Day, which merged in 1916. Juniors originally used their canes to make an arch through which the president would leave his office on his way to College Green to pronounce them seniors. But traditions changed, and the day turned into a fit of raucousness and drunkenness. After students dropped and poured beer on former President Sheldon Hackney in 1990, the president became less involved, out of fear for his own safety. What students see as the biggest Hey Day "tradition" -- biting each other's styrofoam hats -- isn't even a part of the longstanding history of the celebratory day. In fact, one student began the trend only six years ago, and it quickly caught on. Members of the Classes of 1945 and 1970, who are here celebrating reunions this weekend, would probably be confused by all the styrofoam chewing going on. While many of the Hey Day traditions remain the same -- juniors still march to Junior Balcony and the president continues to address the group -- drunkenness has changed the spirit of the event. The administration, which used to look forward to the rites of spring in Spring Fling or Hey Day, now dread the two events and are forced to make contingency plans in case of injury or property damage. This is of little importance to today's students. To them, it doesn't really matter whether the tradition began in 1881 or 1981. What seems to be important is that it is a bonding experience for the whole class. But this unifying experience cannot compare to the class cohesion students had 100 years ago. One tradition of the past calls for members of the freshman and sophomore classes to engage in pants fights. In a quest to find out which class was superior, each group would race to see which could rip the pants off of the other the fastest. The class which lost its pants the fastest lost the battle. And there was no better opportunity to get to know your classmates than Commencement exercises in the years around the turn of the century. At that time, the Commencement procession travelled from 34th and Walnut streets -- the site of the new West Philadelphia campus -- to the Academy of Music at Broad and Locust streets. The Trustees, Provost and faculty rode in horse-drawn carriages for the 20 blocks, while the graduating seniors marched close behind. This is a far cry from today's Locust Walk march to Franklin Field, which offers neither a 20-block walk nor the opportunity to bond with fellow graduates. While it is impossible for tradition to remain stagnant throughout the decades, students and campus historians should do what they can to tell students about traditions of the past, in hopes that students will try to emulate them and create rituals of their own. When seniors gather on Franklin Field Monday to take part in Commencement exercises, they should take a moment to think about those who have graduated before them and the traditions they created at this University. Because if tradition is lost, an important piece of Penn history will vanish with it.

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