Rekindling a tradition

Several years ago, Penn students held two major events to help celebrate the coming of spring and the winding down of a long academic year. One, obviously, was Spring Fling. And the other -- a one-day, riverside festival of free food and music -- was Skimmer. Spring Fling, as we all know, is a ritual that has survived through more than 30 years of revelry and some occasional campus controversy. But history just wasn't as kind to Skimmer; it disappeared from the Penn culture for nearly 30 years over concerns regarding violent behavior and excessive drinking. But just a few years ago, in 1998, Skimmer was brought back. And despite problems since then with oversized crowds, inclement weather and transportation failures, the yearly event was showing some signs of returning to life. That is, until this year. Last week, the sophomore class board cancelled Skimmer just days before the event was to go forward, attributing the unfortunate decision to expected rain over the weekend. That decision, ultimately, was the responsible thing to do, for it protected the board and the University from the enormous costs that would accompany a last-minute cancellation. Sadly, though, the Thursday night cancellation e-mail that most students received was, for many, their first notice that Skimmer was planned at all. Since the event's re-emergence three years ago, Penn's student body has shown a positive -- albeit lackluster -- response to the event which once energized the University at this time of year. Should Skimmer return to the success it once was -- and should the organizing bodies ever get real value for the significant expense involved with staging the festival -- then students need to make a rejuvenated effort to rekindle an event that has been allowed to slip into obscurity. This year, publicity was minimal. Student anticipation was non-existent. And when Skimmer was cancelled, few people seemed to notice. Those aren't the ingredients for a successful celebration. And they're certainly not the best ways to drum up support for an event that can be -- and has been -- one of Penn's best celebrations of the year.

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