Adam Behrens and Jibran Khan | Continuing the tradition

At the end of each academic year, campus comes alive with with the excitement and exuberance of juniors ready to become seniors and seniors preparing to make their initial foray into the world. Hey Day has been an integral part of that spirit for over 70 years, when juniors don their red shirts, hats and canes and process down Locust Walk to be declared seniors on the steps of College Hall.

In recent years, we’ve added a new tradition to the day’s events — the Final Toast — that allows seniors to participate in Hey Day on College Green and begin their transition as lifelong members of Penn’s extensive alumni community.

Repeatedly faced with a changing academic calendar and other major events on Penn’s campus such as the Penn Relays, we succeeded this year in moving Hey Day to the first day of reading days. It is our hope that, unlike in years past, all juniors and seniors wishing to participate will be able to do so without the necessity of missing class or other academic commitments.

Part of our ability to achieve this was due to the success of last year’s initiatives at making Hey Day a safe and enjoyable event, and the cooperation we received from the large majority of participants in significantly decreasing hazing-related incidents.

We will be thus continuing the measures that were implemented last year as well as expanding the number of HeySAFE, MERT and administrative volunteers in hopes of building a sustainable Hey Day tradition in the years to come. As has been the case in recent years, we will also be maintaining a centralized route through campus from the 40th Street end of the Walk to College Green.

Like last year, this year will also see a marked increase in staff members present at all Hey Day locations in order to better respond to incidents that might arise and to confiscate any throwing materials that students might bring to the picnic, the Walk or College Green.

Furthermore, this staff presence will extend past the time of the procession in order to address concerns of hazing-related activity after Hey Day has officially concluded and students are returning to their respective residences. We ask for compliance with on-site staff in order to help avoid many of the preventable accidents that have been associated with Hey Day in the past.

A significant part of student compliance will be in the form of the Hey Day pledge that we are asking all juniors and seniors to sign if they wish to participate in the day’s events. By signing, a student agrees that he or she will not engage or be a party to any type of hazing activity.

The second component of our efforts at making Hey Day a safe event is student cooperation with HeySAFE and MERT. HeySAFE, modeled after FlingSAFE, will work with MERT in order to better provide medical resources to participants that need assistance. An observation area will be monitored by MERT and be available to all students, with full enforcement of the University’s amnesty policy.

We hope that these measures will be met with the same success as last year, and that students will join us in building a tradition that reflects the values of each individual participant and the University as a whole. Hey Day is a rite of passage that connects us with the generations of students who attended Penn in years past, and we hope it remains a tradition that connects us to the students of Penn’s future.

Juniors and seniors, we look forward to sharing a momentous Wednesday afternoon.

College senior Adam Behrens and College and Wharton junior Jibran Khan are the presidents of the Senior Class Board and Junior Class Board, respectively. Their email addresses are adamjb@sas.upenn.edu and jibran@wharton.upenn.edu.

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