Parking-Lot Day or Shake Day? New Shake Policies

It has been a long-standing tradition at Sewanee, for those boys who decided to pledge, to shake the hand of a member of the fraternity they wish to join, after the fraternity members have knocked on their door. However, this year, the policy has changed. Due to damages to the University Residence Halls during last year’s Shake Day, IFC (Inter-Fraternity Council) was asked to write a proposal for a new way of conducting shaking ceremony, putting more individual responsibility on the shaker. Last year alone, there was $2,600 worth of damage done to Tres, Elliot, and Courts. 12 individual student rooms and one common room were damaged. Destruction was done to windows, blinds, and even sheet rock of the buildings themselves. In the wake of this, only three students admitted to causing any destruction. Because of this unsatisfactory response from students failing to admit to their actions, a new method was deemed necessary. The IFC’s proposal called for the shaker to obtain personal responsibility for the newly accepted pledge and financial responsibility for any damage done to his room. However, this policy was rejected. Now, members of the fraternity are required to wait in the parking lot of the dorm for the freshman to exit in small groups. Those involved in last year’s planning feel as if their time and effort put into the proposal was wasted. Robert James Fitzgerald, former ATO president involved in the IFC’s proposal states, “We might as well call it Parking Lot Day, not Shake Day.” If the IFC has little say in what goes on on Shake Day, what influence do they have? Dean Bruce insists that the IFC’s plan was heard and taken into account. However, the main problem with the rejected proposal was that by agreeing to it, it says that the University is ok with damage, as long as someone can pay for it. Dean Bruce explained that Dorm Life groups are not asking to host events at fraternity houses, so why should the fraternities ask to go into the dorms. Some of the dorms are hard enough to maintain in their current states, let alone in a destroyed state. After confirming his statement with Dean Bruce, Convenor for the IFC, John Ruzic, states that “the only aspects [of Shake Day] that have been removed are the physical acts of entering a building and knocking on a door, which cover the span of roughly five to seven minutes.” Though this statement is correct, this new method has triggered concerns of an increase in peer-pressure felt by the boys as they walk towards large groups of fraternities gathered outside. Such a large group is much more intimidating than one representative from each fraternity. Concerns of increased physical violence has also risen to the surface to which Dean Bruce replied by saying that if a drunken-brawl breaks out in the parking-lot, it will be the end of the Shake Day tradition as we know it. Ruzic confirms, “As you may or may not know, the risk involved with Shake Day has made the entire occasion dangerously close to becoming history. If all goes as planned with the new system, we can ensure that Shake Day will continue for a long, long time.”

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