The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Red, blue

Engineering freshman Conor Walsh unzips his pants on Locust Walk, and everyone looks.

In fact, they stare.

A small audience has gathered at 2:15 on a recent Sunday morning as Walsh, returning from a night of drinking at off-campus parties, urinates all over the statue of Penn's beloved founder.

"Moments are made at the Ben Franklin statue, and I think I contributed to that," he says.

Minutes later, a College sophomore who wished to remain anonymous, jumps atop "Ben on the Bench." Urine splashes from the top of Franklin's head, then trickles down the side of his bronze body.

The sophomore jumps down and raises his arms triumphantly in the air.

They're not the first, and they certainly won't be the last.

Though University officials say they are unaware of the late-night lewdness, it's common knowledge among most students.

Some even say the statue, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month, is now the center of an unofficial tradition.

"The lore is such that, when you walk down Locust Walk, if you step on the compass, you fail your first midterm; you shouldn't sit next to Ben Franklin because people urinate on him; and what happens under the button stays under the button," Senior Class President Puneet Singh said, referring to other unsanctioned Penn traditions. "You hear all those things freshman year."

Junior Class President Brett Perlmutter said he knows at least six people who have done it, though he has no plans to.

"When I was a freshman, it was like bragging rights marching back to the Quad," Perlmutter said. "I've heard it described as something you have to do before you graduate."

The practice isn't a recent phenomenon - before "Ben on the Bench," there was Ben on the Green.

College alumnus Dan Wolf, who went to Penn from 1965 to 1968, said he remembers his peers urinating on the Franklin statue in front of College Hall.

"If you have a choice between peeing on a tree and peeing on Ben Franklin, is there a choice?" Wolf asked.

It was "more of a humorous type of thing" that only a handful of people were aware of, he said.

And when "Ben on the Bench" was installed in 1987 as a 25th reunion gift from the Class of 1962, the practice was unheard of at the now-popular peeing location.

College '89 alumnus Jon Aranoff lived in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house with a window overlooking the statue shortly after its installation, but he never once heard of or witnessed anyone urinating on it.

Peeing on either Franklin statue continued to be little known and practiced, if at all, until this decade, alumni from the 1980s and 90s said.

How this activity grew into the modern phenomenon it has become is a mystery, but it's certainly become more than just a late-night prank by a couple students.

On any given weekend, five people urinate on the statue, estimated Colin, a College sophomore who wished not to use his last name. He said he's done it twice. One night, he and five friends took turns.

So, why are students so eager to mark their territory?

"There's a fascination with leaving your urine on different objects that represent power," Singh said.

"It's more symbolic," added the anonymous sophomore shortly after he urinated on Ben's head. "You're peeing on two hundred years of history."

Another part of the appeal, the perpetrators say, is that students know, but outsiders don't - and they often take a seat next to Ben, or on his lap.

In fact, Desmond Tutu, Bill Cosby, Hillary Clinton and Vanna White have all sat next to Ben for photo ops while on campus.

All lewdness aside, urinating on statues once was an artistic technique.

Until the invention of ammonia, artists would urinate on bronze statues to create the same green antique look that marks many historical artifacts and monuments, including the Statue of Liberty.

But there's nothing artistic about what's going on at Penn, says George Lundeen, the Colorado sculptor commissioned to create "Ben on the Bench."

"It's embarrassing to me as an artist to have that happen, and it should be embarrassing to anyone at the University of Pennsylvania to have that happen," he said.

It's illegal too. Public urination is a "code violation notice," punishable with a $300 fine that can be reduced to $50 if paid within eight days.

But since the statue is University property, the act could be considered "institutional vandalism," a third-degree felony, Philadelphia Police spokesman Ray Evers said.

Penn students are not the only delinquents in the Ivy League.

At Harvard University, urinating on the statue of John Harvard, the university's first benefactor, is something "everyone has to do before they graduate," according to Harvard sophomore Brett Thomas, a university tour guide who says he has peed on the statue himself.

Yale students also acknowledge that it is popular to make a late-night stop to pee on the statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey, the university's president from 1846 to 1871.

But by day, visitors at any of the schools often don't know any better.

The morning after the exploits of Walsh and others, two young women cuddled up next to Ben for a photo.

One girl puts her arm around his neck, smiles, turns her head, and kisses Franklin on the cheek.

Comments (22)

This constitutes front page news now? Clearly, more interesting things need to happen at Penn.

This really is a disgrace. Given the large size of the undergraduate student body, at least there is a hope that most people have the decency and good sense to act respectfully and not participate in things like this. If the students at Penn really want to be known for their intelligence and academic prowess, why is this a headlining story?

Ha! I was contacted by this author to comment on this story and thought it was some kind of joke. I have never heard of any such tradition.

Ben Franklin was not only the founder of Penn; he was a founding father of our country. The desecration of his statue is an affront to everything he stood for and everything he helped to create. Being a student at Penn is a privilege, not a right. If young people don�?t have enough respect for the institution, or the proper up bringing to know this behavior is unacceptable, may be they shouldn�?t be there at all. I�?m hard pressed to think of any other simple act that warrants immediate expulsion from the University.

Seeing this story on the front page of the DP today made me feel ashamed to attend a university with people who behave in such immature and insolent ways.

Lighten up everyone, it's funny as hell. In my three years at this school so far, I've seen like 25 people doing it.

In the short time since I've graduated, I've seen more and more disgusting and bizarre behavior characterized by this paper as being a Penn "tradition." I'm sorry, but none of this stuff was going on when I was there, and 6 years is not long enough for a new "tradition" to develop, especially at a place that has been around since 1740. I hate to be that stick-in-the-mud alum looking down on the current crop of undergrads, but between Hey Day and this, many of the students seem intent on behaving like they live in the House of Primates.

The DP did a great disservice to Penn by using the "t" word in the sub-headline of this article. This is not, and never will be, a Penn t. If you agree, please refrain from using that word as it merely reinforces the concept in the heads of current students.

I agree with the vast majority of comments posted here. As an alum who visits the campus fairly often, I find this kind of conduct repulsive and inexcusable--especially since this unique statue is NOT up on a pedestal, but instead INVITES close contact and physical interaction by an otherwise unwary public. Perhaps the DP has performed a public service with this article since, HOPEFULLY, the university will now take aggressive action to end this repugnant practice IMMEDIATELY.

I agree that this is neither a tradition nor acceptable behavior. I graduated in 04 and this is the first I've heard of such a hallowed tradition. I agree with Philly Alum who mentioned that this particular statue invites close contact/interaction. Also, I agree with the poster who questioned whether or not this was front page news. It isn't. I know it's early in the semester, but the DP editors should try a little harder than this.

[QUOTE id="1d3c73d1-c57c-4385-8da8-d7a6e643c585"]Lighten up everyone, it's funny as hell. In my three years at this school so far, I've seen like 25 people doing it.[/QUOTE] I'll lighten up, if you grow up.

Not only is this immature, disrespectful and disgusting, but it isn't even funny or clever in any way.

This is so disrespectful; its not even creative...and this is supposedly the Ivy League????

Conor "future, employers, please don't google my name" Walsh, good luck getting a job.

[QUOTE id="4acc1df0-2efc-4b6c-826d-fd49e2a4a800"]Conor "future, employers, please don't google my name" Walsh, good luck getting a job.[/QUOTE] Who'd WANT to hire him? He might pee on the office water cooler just for "fun".

Fellow potty-mouths and toilet-fetishists: In this critical time for our nation, it's a time to break barries: and that is why my foundation is offering a 500 thousand dollar reward to the first frat boy to provide video proof of defecation on the Franklin statue. Please submit entries to College Hall via Dean Deturk. We deem that, since urine is an appropriate, so are feces. So go wild, kids! Maybe the DP will be tasteless enough to write a story about that too.

Take your trust funds and get out of Philadelphia.

This makes me sick to my stomach. Between nearly ruining Hey Day and now this embarrassment, I'm beginning to think Penn undergrads are intent on ruining this school. Maybe THIS explains Stetson's departure- admitting the wrong students! I was as immature as they come when I was at Penn, but even I could refrain from this behavior and insisting on throwing food at people, instead of taking part in a tradition the way it was handed down to me (and my class).

This needs to stop. Immediately.

Traditions at Penn: Hormonal outbursts, Substance Abuse poisonings, and Annual embarassing PR incidents. Something that no one will every really totally control at Penn or any other college. Either you shake your head or laugh, depending on whether there is harm to one's health, criminal intent or "Jack-ass" behavior involved. They ruined a classic Penn football song, "Hang Jeff Davis." The song has been banned due to student vulgarities that sprang up while singing it during the 80's. It now is sung by the Penn Band accapella to avoid the issue. Mild compared to public urination. One interesting Penn tradition involving student release of bodily fluids and/or solids that has continued for decades: Vomiting on or near the front steps of the Law School after binging at the local resturants and bars on near by Sansom Street. My guess is that the steps are just the right distance when the effects of dangerously high alcohol level take affect on their stomachs. All in all, nothing really different at Penn. All part of the spectrum of embarassing PR incidents at Penn: Water Buffalo, Sexually themed snow sculptures, Controversial Halloween Costumes, Sex in the High Rise Window, Frat House rapes, Alcohol related deaths, Running naked through the Quad, etc. You move on, limit the destructive things as best as you can, and encourage the good.

[QUOTE id="654615d5-4284-4042-81c4-42dbbff8ba35"]Take your trust funds and get out of Philadelphia.[/QUOTE] Ironic, considering Philadelphia is one of the country's epicenters of trust funders. City people hate that fact.

News hook (also known as the hook or the story's news value): that which makes a story news --- e.g., its immediacy, novelty (it's new), controversy, effect on a local population. When considering whether to pursue your story, reporters look to see if there's a news hook.

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