Flunk Day 2021: The Comeback Flunk

It was a quiet, stormy Monday morning on Knox’s campus, and the vast majority of students remained asleep in their residence halls, recuperating from Sunday night study sessions in the Gizmo. But in the first hours of sunlight, the sound of raincoat-adorned, upperclassmen Friars yelling and banging on pots and pans awoke the entire campus and alerted them of the exciting news: it was Flunk Day. 

There had been a number of Flunk Day scares over the previous week, but a campus-wide email from the Dean of Students shortly after the Friars’ wakeup call made it official. Flunk Day is a century-old Knox tradition in which, on an undisclosed date, all classes are canceled, and students spend the day enjoying carnival games, rides, and live performances. 

Even Adam Rothkopf ’22, a junior student with a breadth of Flunk experience, unexpectedly awoke to the 6:30 a.m. Friar calls across campus. “It was my first time getting woken up by them, and I was actually very excited about it,” Rothkopf said. “It was like a mob of joy.”

Other students, like Henry Williams ’24, were less enthused about the wakeup call. “I was a little unsure because of waking up early, and the Friars, and everything,” Williams said. “I was a little grumpy because I was tired.” But Williams’ mood shifted dramatically upon arriving in the fieldhouse and taking part in the vast array of carnival games and rides. “Honestly it’s gotten so much better since then,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun right now!”

Unbeknownst to most of the Knox community, the T. Fleming Fieldhouse had been entirely transformed in the hours preceding the arrival of Flunk Day 2021, affectionately referred to as “The Comeback Flunk.” An area normally used for pickup soccer and basketball games was covered in matted spaces for bean bag toss, painting, human billiards (a mini-arena with 16 soccer balls painted with numbers and bright colors), an obstacle course, a spinning Wipe-Out style machine called “Meltdown,” and a plethora of assorted carnival games.

Another first-year student, Archi Nokrek ’24, shared Williams’ shift in sentiment upon actually experiencing Flunk Day first-hand. “My favorite parts have been skipping class—thank you very much—being able to be weird without judgment all day long in public, and being able to spend time with friends,” Nokrek said. “It makes all the 6:30 Friar wakeup calls worth it. You wouldn’t think that it would be, but it definitely is!”

On the whole, students weren’t bothered by the rainy weather. Instead, they focused on the notion of simply sharing a lively social experience with the campus community. “I’ve seen more people than I usually have,” said Katherine Zhang ’23. “And so I realized, ‘Oh, this is the Knox community.’ It was one year of being isolated from everyone else and not really having the opportunity to get to know more people. Now that we're sort of back in it, I can actually see people and talk to people.”

Likewise, when asked about his favorite part of Flunk Day, J.J. Silander ’23 replied, “Last year was all online, so just to be here and to be present with everyone. It’s a great time so far, and there is so much more to come.”