A Runaway Tradition

As blocking mayhem winds down, Housing Day jitters take its place as the members of the freshman class begin the perennial prayers for the perfect Housing assignment. Students in all corners of the Yard can be seen with their fingers crossed and heads bowed to the Housing Day Gods, hoping they will be granted luck on the day that will determine their future abodes.

Though rumors of “River Run” are in full swirl, they are often accompanied by some confusion as to the origins and methods by which the festivities ensue. River Run began as a way to ensure luck in the Housing lottery, presumably by appealing to the “River Gods” for good fortune on Housing Day. To the dismay of the administration, these rituals often involved sending burning boats down the Charles River, bearing the name of the sender’s first-choice House and enflaming the tempers of local authorities. Hosted by upperclassmen residents, freshmen are also encouraged to imbibe at their House of choice on the night of Housing Day Eve, ultimately providing UHS with a busy evening as well.

Administrators who remember Housing Days of yore, however, don’t qualify River Run as a tradition. River Run “doesn’t go back that long in time…I don’t know that it goes back more than a decade,” says Freshman Dean Thomas A. Dingman ’67. In a similar vein, Adams House Master Sean Palfrey ’67 notes, “It doesn’t take more than four years for everyone here to think something is a long-standing tradition.”

Yet from many students’ perspectives, River Run’s rebellious undertones only add to the steadily building Housing Day excitement. “It’s a big moment, or at least it’s perceived as such. You’re about to decide where you are for the next three years, so it’s a bummer that you don’t have anything to do, but I can’t say that I fault the administration [for that],” remarks Winthrop senior Ari D. Brenner ’14.

Brenner recalls his River Run experience differently than younger students might. “Back in those crazy days, we went to a handful of upperclassmen Houses where we had friends,” he says. “We went to Eliot, and my buddy in there taught us the Eliot chant and showed us cool stuff in the courtyard. Kirkland is always yelling about how great they are.”

The night left a positive impression on Brenner, as he and his friends went on to write the new Winthrop chant. “We thought it was pretty lame that Winthrop didn’t have its own chant, so we wrote one and distributed it for a while. Now I’m pretty sure there are sophomores in the House who think it’s a real thing.”

Challenges from Harvard faculty about the value of the celebration are manifold, as their primary fear is safety. “[The concerns] climaxed three or four years ago, when students found themselves in really compromised states, darting across Memorial Drive, in and out of traffic, and we almost had a couple of accidents,” Dingman recalls. “And attached to the taking of the shots in the House courtyards was this practice of building boats and putting them in the river. Then [the students] had the idea that if they lit them on fire, it would be even more compelling to the gods, and that created obvious concerns.”

Yet Dingman says that there’s still room for tradition. “I think our job should be to keep looking for meaningful traditions. This one got edgier and edgier, and we had real concerns about safety,” Dingman notes. “It sounds like we’re spoilers of fun, but were just trying to not set up a situation where students can get into trouble.” As a result, guards will be stationed at Yard gates on Housing Day Eve to ask students where they are headed, and to remind them to leave their boats behind.

Ultimately, the goal of River Run is to appease the River Gods, thus squelching the power of the Quadrangle Deities. “We know that the Quad houses are hugely successful,” Dingman reminds shuttle-wary freshmen. “If you look at the satisfaction rates reported by the seniors, you’ll see that they are disproportionately at the top of the pile, at the three Quad Houses. So it seems sort of odd to back a tradition that has its roots in ‘how do we get a River House assignment?’”

Still, the seeds of tradition have been sown. Whether you’re a daredevil or a homebody, frantically panicking about housing or playing it cool, Emerson so fittingly reminds us that “the ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.” Now that's timeless.