Land Sharks, Samurai, and Giant Tootsie Rolls: It's I.S. Monday 2011

Seniors mark a joyous Wooster rite of passage

**View I.S. Monday 2011 photo gallery** 

WOOSTER, Ohio, March 28, 2011 - It was midafternoon Monday when Darth Vader turned in his I.S., claiming button number 337 for “A Study of Messages of Political Resistance in Hip Hop, Rock, and Country Music.” By the time the I.S. Parade stepped off at 5 p.m., neither he nor the imperial storm trooper who accompanied him to the registrar’s office were anywhere to be seen, though it’s possible they had simply changed into civilian clothes by then.

If the lord of the dark side was concerned about standing out, he needn’t have worried. The marchers this year included a cigar-smoking penguin, a shark with a scuba diver’s legs dangling from his mouth, and two robed samurai. For the second year in a row, Henry Kreuzman, dean for curriculum and academic engagement, led the way in full MacLeod tartan. Three pipers, two drummers, and a large, ambulatory Tootsie Roll, (which looked suspiciously like registrar Suzanne Bates) followed close behind.

Not everyone went the full costume route. There were bunny ears and superhero masks, and a haberdasher shop’s worth of hats: bowlers and batting helmets, pork pies and paper hats made from copies of the Voice, and at least one MacLeod tartan tam.

The bright green t-shirts worn by one group of friends summed up their 2011 I.S. experience this way: “2 nervous breakdowns; 0 advisers killed; 1 I.S. turned in; 1 day I’ll never forget.”

As the seniors made their way through the arch and down the mall, through lines of cheering underclass students, faculty, and staff, they shouted out to their I.S. advisers.  Some stopped to have a picture taken, including one pink-wigged philosophy major whose adviser happened to be President Grant Cornwell.

The I.S. Parade has always felt a bit like Mardi Gras, but with college staff at several points along the route handing out goodies, as they did last year, it’s beginning to take on an air of trick-or-treating, too. The admissions staff gave out black wristbands with “Wooster I.S. 2011” and “I Did It” inscribed in gold, while those in the alumni office dispensed individual packets of Walker’s Shortbread. President Cornwell and his wife, Peg, shook hands and offered college stickers as the marchers passed their home. Dean of Students Kurt Holmes and his colleagues distributed Kudos candy bars in front of Babcock, as the marchers approached their final destination at Kittredge Hall.

By 5:30 p.m., with the seniors ensconced in Kitt eating pizza, the Wooster police reopened Beall Avenue to traffic, and only a few empty shortbread wrappers and some spent bits of silly string gave evidence of the joyous crowd’s passage moments before. But like generations of Wooster students before them, the Class of 2011 will cherish their memories of this I.S. Monday forever.