WINTER PARK, Fla. — Hours before the sun came up Monday, a small number of students keeping watch over the campus’ center quickly sounded the alarm.
Coming down the sidewalk was President Grant Cornwell, with staff members in tow, carting the school’s legendary stone statue of a fox with its arms folded.
Within minutes, word spread throughout campus: Fox Day had arrived.
“People are very committed to this tradition,” junior Ricardo Pierre said as he watched people snap selfies with the fox.
Perhaps one of the most unique traditions among United States higher learning institutes, Fox Day is a surprise to all but a small group of planners each year.
It’s a day for the campus to relax and drop the usual worries about classwork and studying, or work for staff members. Those who must work on Fox Day get another day off as compensation.
The date is random, chosen by Cornwell, and always on a day where he and his predecessors decide it’s too nice to be inside.
Then-President Hugh McKean started Fox Day in 1956, supposedly as a way to create a day for community building on campus.
The first Fox Day included square dancing, a treasure hunt and a picnic.
According to Rollins, students and McKean struck a deal for the return of Fox Day in 1958, when he granted the students freedom for the day in return for them coming back to campus in the evening for a picnic and choir performance.
Except for a break during the 1970s, which was protested by students, and year or two later on, Fox Day has continued ever since, complete with free snacks, entertainment and refreshments.
Fox Day is now cherished as a day for many students to go to the beach or theme parks.
“People were camping outside,” Pierre explained, saying students made predictions and rearranged their schedules based on when they thought Fox Day would be.
Fox Day rarely occurs on a Monday. Pierre said Cornwell threw the campus off the scent this year by deciding to buck the norm.
“It’s just taking the time to chill and take care of yourself,” Pierre said.
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