I am assuming since the University accepted my donation for Zonker Harris Day 2008, the event went off after all. Thank goodness!
I am happy to know that the traditions that make Wesleyan unique—-and less uptight than many our liberal arts competitors—-might yet survive the re-branding exercise currently being implemented on campus. I am relieved if the new administration has come to its senses. I hope they realize that the many offbeat traditions like Zonker Harris help Wesleyan stand out from the pack.
As a high school student in Tennessee before the Internet era, I found Wesleyan without any help from a marketing campaign, just those long forgotten index books in the library. Based on outside commentary, I decided Wesleyan was the academically rigorous and experimental community I was looking for.
Then I visited on a weekend in late April. My prefrosh host welcomed me to campus, handed me a bag of mushrooms, and bid me to go out and explore the campus. I did. I roamed Foss Hill, the CFA, and the basement of West College. I talked to people. I posed similar questions to the eclectic groups of students I encountered and got many different answers about the Wesleyan experience. Oh yeah, and I tripped balls.
I’m not advocating hallucinogens for prefrosh. I am only pointing out that Zonker Harris and WesFest need not be mutually exclusive. I strongly object to the goal of self-conscious re-branding if it means the loss of such traditions. I see real danger in competing for more applicants from the Bowdoins and Middleburys of the world through the censure of student expression. I like the possibility that some naive but curious country boy might have a drug fueled adventure similar to my own.
Seriously, why risk diluting that sense of connection for future prospective students? The long run cost of re-branding could be our institution’s colorful identity.
So, Wesleyan students, enjoy a sunny day on Foss Hill with several hundred of your dearest classmates. Listen to some brilliant music. Have an epiphany or two. Welcome those wide-eyed prefrosh. Then dive into those term papers with the eye for excellence and love for knowledge that distinguishes the Wesleyan community.
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