Hey Day is back, but seniors beware

Hey Day is here to stay - at least for this year.

In an e-mail to the junior and senior classes last night, the Hey Day working group announced that, despite talks of canceling the 91-year-old Penn tradition, Hey Day will indeed take place this year on April 20.

The working group - which includes representatives from the junior and senior class boards, the Undergraduate Assembly, the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life, the President's office, the Provost's office and the Division of Public Safety - has spent the last year trying to determine the future of Hey Day.

Last spring, administrative officials threatened to alter, or even cancel, the event after they said the seniors' hazing of the juniors got out of hand.

Since then, the working group has held community meetings and has surveyed students to gauge the University's general expectations for the future of the event.

And, ultimately, this year's Hey Day will most likely be quite similar to those held in past years.

The letter states that there will be "no changes to the class picnic on Hill Field, the campus procession route or to the Presidential address at College Hall."

It also calls for the implementation of a "Hey Day Traditions" marketing campaign - the details of which have yet to been disclosed - and a pledge of responsibility that seniors will be required to sign in order to attend the event.

That pledge "will be written in a way that clearly indicates hazing is not an acceptable behavior or a component of the long-standing Hey Day tradition at Penn," according to the letter.

"This is a very tangible way for students to demonstrate that they can act responsibly," said Wharton senior and class president Andrew Kaplan.

And such a demonstration will, indeed, be necessary.

The letter warns that if student behavior does not improve, there will be consequences, like moving Hey Day to the following fall - when the class is beginning its senior year - along with "punitive alterations to the Class of 2007's Senior Week in May."

Kaplan said details regarding those alterations have not yet been finalized but will be announced prior to this year's Hey Day.

To improve safety, the Hey Day working group also considered implementing a close examination of all bags and substances brought to the event in order to avoid further hazing, but the idea was rejected in order to prevent putting police and students in compromising positions, said Wharton junior and class president Puneet Singh.

Wharton senior and UA Chairman Brett Thalmann added that "it is unrealistic to hope for a complete change this year, but I think we will see tangible progress."

Although the measures taken to improve Hey Day are not as severe as those originally considered - which included altering the procession route and holding an off-campus senior event instead - the administration seems happy with these decisions.

"I wouldn't call it a compromise at all," said Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum. "I would call it a terrific resolution."

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