Penn students will be able to keep flinging in the Quadrangle for at least one more year.
Thanks to the hard work of this year's organizers, Spring Fling will take place in the Quad next year, University officials said Monday.
Student and University leaders indicated early on that this year would be a test for the annual spring festival, which they said was being examined due to excessive alcohol abuse and property damage in past years.
And Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum said students met the challenge.
"This is a good story of students stepping up and taking leadership and ownership of an important Penn tradition," she said. "It is entirely because of the hard work of the student leadership and their administrative partners" that the event will remain in the Quad.
While complete data aren't yet available, records show that police responded to 27 total incidents during Fling this year, down from 37 during Fling 2005.
McCoullum said on Monday that the more extensive health and crime data she has seen -- which aren't yet publicly available -- indicated that major incidents were down from last year.
Associate Vice Provost for University Life Terry Conn also praised the work of all students who organized and participated in Spring Fling.
Spring Fling co-Director and College senior Jake Chanin said that he saw a lot of progress compared to last year.
"It's a start; I could definitely feel a change," he said.
The decision, McCoullum said, was made after extensive debate between several administrative offices, including the president's, the Division of Public Safety and the Office of Alcohol and Strategic Policy Initiatives.
However, administrators say there is still significant room for improvement.
In previous years, "a culture that produced destructive behavior to self and to others [was] allowed to grow and fester," VPUL spokeswoman Leah Smith said.
This year, Smith and McCoullum said, that culture of binge drinking began to change, but student behavior must improve even more for Fling to remain in the Quad after next year. She said that on the Friday night of Fling, there were still a high number of incidents in the Quad.
"The belligerent and abusive behaviors inside the Quadrangle are going to have to change," McCoullum said.
Due to these incidents, McCoullum said, the decision to allow Fling to remain in the Quad was not unanimous.
Some administrators, she said, credited the rainy weather which kept people indoors, not student efforts, for the better behavior during Fling.
And Chanin said keeping the positive momentum up would take hard work from students.
"We can't take [this opportunity] for granted," Chanin said. "It's going to [take] the same amount of hard work to continue to make positive changes and improvements."
