Students, faculty and administrators will memorialize Wharton junior Yash Kasbekar, who died in a car crash over winter break, at a service in Houston Hall this evening.
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brother was killed Jan. 1 after celebrating New Year's Eve at a lake house in Wisconsin. Kasbekar's car was reportedly forced off the road and into an embankment while he was riding back to his house in the suburbs of Chicago, Ill.
Recently elected executive vice president of the InterFraternity Council and a member of the Omega honor society, Kasbekar was the fourth Penn student to die this school year.
The two-hour memorial service will include various student and administrative speakers, an open microphone session, a musical interlude featuring campus a capella group Off the Beat and a small reception with refreshments after the event. The service will be held in the Hall of Flags in Houston Hall at 6 p.m.
"It is our time to honor Yash," incoming IFC President Conor Daly said. "We haven't done it yet... I am ready, and I think everyone else is."
Because of fraternity rush, many of Kasbekar's friends have been heavily occupied recently and are now ready to take a moment to remember him.
"We haven't had a chance to grieve yet," said Daly. "If Yash was here, he'd say that we should get into rush."
The open mic portion of the service will give those close to Kasbekar the opportunity to share their memories of the highly respected and popular student.
"In these memorial services, I try to provide a space for people to share those different kinds of experiences that people had with Yash -- joyous times, serious times, whatever it was that made him special to other people. That's what we're hoping to hear tomorrow," said University Chaplain William Gipson, who will participate in the service.
"We'll try to remember slices of his life at Penn, from his social life, to the playing fields to his engagements with intellectual ideas," Gipson added.
With assistance from the Chaplain and Assistant Vice Provost Terry Conn, Kasbekar's close friends were at the forefront of planning the service.
"This was a tragedy that affected his family and friends, and I think that it was important that they took the lead in planning this event," Conn said.
Gipson said the Hall of Flags was chosen as the location for the ceremony because it provides a more intimate environment for students and faculty to share their memories.
With "the Hall of Flags, the advantage is that for 150-200 people, there is more intimacy, versus a cavernous place like Irvine" Auditorium, Gipson said.
Kasbekar's friends are planning to videotape the service and send an edited version to his parents.
The service is open to the entire University community. About 200 people are expected to attend, including most members of SAE, and many of Kasbekar's friends and professors.
