Penn tones down its decades-old 'Hey Day' ritual

Even before the horror at Virginia Tech this week put campus safety in the spotlight, administrators at the University of Pennsylvania had taken steps to quell what they say was a menacing turn in the school's "Hey Day" ritual, scheduled for this afternoon, in which juniors are pelted with ketchup, fish, and other gross and potentially hazardous foodstuffs by graduating seniors.

Administrators have threatened to cancel the Senior Week class trip to Atlantic City - and the decades-old Hey Day tradition itself - if there is a repeat of last spring's revelry, in which a student hit with eggs was reportedly hospitalized.

Seniors are being asked to sign an anti-hazing pledge before taking part in the celebration, in which juniors parade to College Hall to be declared seniors and then pass through the graduating seniors' gauntlet. Marshmallows and streamers, the only acceptable projectiles this year, are to be passed out at a newly organized pre-march barbecue for seniors.

"Just four years ago, none of this destructive behavior occurred at all on Hey Day," class president Andrew Kaplan wrote in an e-mail to seniors this week, "but today it has reached a point where students are getting injured, costly damage is being done to our campus, and many are questioning the need for Hey Day."

A committee of administrators and students convened this school year to negotiate a new code of conduct for the day.

"The plan that we have put forth balances the expressed desires of students with the paramount need for Penn traditions to be safe, therefore ensuring their long-term viability," Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, vice provost for university life, said in a statement.

Senior Lea Chu, who was a target at last year's "Hey Day," and who plans to be on the throwing end of things today, said she believed the uproar was overblown.

"Getting hit with tons of stuff wasn't that exciting, but it didn't seem that dangerous either," said Chu, 22, of Wading River, N.Y. "I got hit with ketchup and flour; I saw a fish thrown."

As a freshman, she said, she accidentally walked into Hey Day, which takes place on the campus' Locust Walk, and emerged with her long white skirt destroyed.

"It seemed so much worse then," she said.

Last year, she wore $5 spandex biking shorts and old shoes.

She said she had heard seniors threatening to break the rules, but she added, with a hint of resignation, that she planned to sign the pledge and follow orders.

"They say if we throw something else, we'll be the class that destroys Hey Day," she said.

The tradition, a less-than-tame affair even when the men wore topcoats, began in 1916 as a way for students to mark their ascension to the next class rank. The daylong party culminated at Franklin Field with an evening of sports, tug-of-war, egg-pelting, and a mock cremation of faculty, according to university archives. Cremations ended about 1930, the history said, "after years of riotous clashes with fellow students and the police following the ceremony."

Now, Hey Day is a junior milestone. Students wear red T-shirts and carry canes as they march from their annual picnic to College Hall to be officially declared seniors by the university president. In keeping with tradition, they take bites out of one another's foam boater hats.

Sometimes, things get out of hand. When Judith Rodin was university president, students chanted for her to bare her breasts. In recent years, administrators say, food-throwing has verged on hazing, and they warned seniors against it last year, too. Students said they had heard about bags of urine being hurled in the past.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech murders, some at Penn wonder whether such a celebration - which was suspended during the dark days of World War II - is appropriate this year.

"Among my friends, we have talked about that," said junior Pamela Rook, 21, of Lower Merion. "We have to approach Hey Day with a sense of seriousness; we have to keep in mind what happened this week."

She said Penn students would have a chance to express their grief over the Virginia Tech slayings at a campus candlelight vigil scheduled for last night.

"It's definitely on our minds," Rook said.

As frivolous as Hey Day may seem to outsiders, it is meaningful to those involved, said Chu, the senior.

"It's academic," she said. "It's about the rise of juniors. It's a bonding time for the class."