After weeks of anticipation, the day finally arrived for Knox College students, faculty, and staff: Flunk Day. This year’s edition of the 103-year-old tradition began with a early morning email announcing that the day had come to celebrate the near end of Spring Term ’25.

“My roommate started blasting music at 7 a.m. and pulled me out of bed,” said Becca Anderson, ’27, a theatre major. “It’s been a great day so far, and I’m excited to see what else is happening. I'm open to whatever comes my way.”

This year’s theme was "Boogie by the Bay," featuring a variety of activities with beach motifs.

“I’m having a great time; we were a bit more prepared for this one, and it feels even better overall,” said Sage Coleman ’27, a sophomore majoring in creative writing. Coleman embraced the theme by dressing as a pirate. “This was a lucky guess on my part,” she added. “I brought the costume just in case, and it turned out to be perfect for the theme.”

Months of organizing went into the annual event, and the planning paid off as students enjoyed activities throughout the day across campus. Fortunately, Mother Nature contributed to the fun with beautiful weather. 

“I knew it would be a win no matter what when I left the house and it was not raining,” Jake McLean, assistant dean for student life and Flunk Day committee supervisor said. “Weather dictates the day and we had a beautiful day for Flunk Day. Seeing everybody engaged, I hope the student planning team feels a good sense of accomplishment putting all this together. It’s hard to feel that way when you’re working the event, but I think they’ll feel that pride and sense of accomplishment when we’re packing things up.”

Outdoing previous Flunk Days and creating lasting memories for fellow students is the primary goal for the committee, and it seemed they met that goal successfully. 

“I think for me, the most important thing to do is ask people what they would like to see that’s new and what we can bring back,” said special events coordinator and head of the Flunk Day committee, Nysa Phulwar ’26. “People said we have to bring back the zipline, so we have that back. We want everyone to have fun, so we thought about cool things people would enjoy. We have the zipline, a foam party, a DJ, face painting, rides, and other fun stuff. The entire committee worked very hard and they’re still running around doing their thing, there’s so much fun stuff."

Outdoing previous Flunk Days and creating lasting memories for fellow students is the primary goal for the committee, and it seemed they met that goal successfully. 

“I think for me, the most important thing to do is ask people what they would like to see that’s new and what we can bring back,” said special events coordinator and head of the Flunk Day committee, Nysa Phulwar ’26. “People said we have to bring back the zipline, so we have that back. We want everyone to have fun, so we thought about cool things people would enjoy. We have the zipline, a foam party, a DJ, face painting, rides, and other fun stuff. The entire committee worked very hard and they’re still running around doing their thing, there’s so much fun stuff.”

Phulwar was assisted by committee members Madeline Hart, ‘25, Cole Andrews, ‘26, Lucas Fujii, ‘27, Jill Rochford, ‘26, and Julia Maron, ‘26.

The morning and early afternoon featured carnival rides, inflatables, face painting, a foam party, a reptile zoo, water features, a mechanical shark for riding, lawn games, and even adventurous students creating their own fun.

Later in the day, students could skate on a roller rink, play in the annual softball game, dance to music provided by a DJ, sing karaoke, participate in Bingo, and watch a movie.

“I woke up at 3 a.m., so I’ve been up for a bit now,” Phulwar said. “The committee met at 5 a.m., we set everything up and made sure the vendors were in place and had everything they needed before it was time to run around and see where else we could help. It’s all been very fun and exciting. We have the evening concert, DJ COREY coming in, the roller rink is set up and we’ll have ice cream and snow cones. I was feeling the Flunk Day energy last night, now I’m seeing people running around, dancing, I think this will make for some really good memories.”