By Jennifer Santiago | News Writer
October 17, 2024 | 1:32pm CDT
With brisk temperatures and warm smiles, the Student Government Association (SGA) kicked off Auburn University’s 77th Hey Day on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Dating back to 1947, Hey Day was created to welcome student veterans back to a kind and inviting campus following World War II. The veterans felt out of place at home post-war, so SGA rallied students to proudly wear name tags and connect with people they might not have otherwise met.
The simplicity of Hey Day is designed to help remove some of the pressure students feel, allowing them to overcome their anxieties when talking to strangers. Sometimes, all it takes is a “hey” to spark a conversation.
Wyatt Hardee, junior in chemistry, explained that Hey Day is one of his favorite Auburn traditions, and his love for Hey Day ignited during his freshman year when he volunteered for the event.
“Something as simple as saying, ‘hey’, can really go a long way, especially if someone’s having a bad day and might not want to talk,” Hardee said.
SGA posted stations all over campus, including the Village, the Edge and the Ralph Brown Draughon Library, but the two hubs for Hey Day were located on the Campus Green Space and in front of the Melton Student Center. At these stations name tags, buttons and shirts were handed out. All to encourage students to say “hey” to one another.
At the Green Space students were invited to meet new people while enjoying Spikeball, a catered lunch featuring “hey dogs” and an inflatable obstacle course. A pep rally also took place, featuring the Auburn University Cheerleaders, Tiger Paws and Aubie the Tiger.
Nibir Roy, a first year graduate student in biosystems engineering, said he had never heard of Hey Day until that morning, but he soon discovered that Hey Day represents the southern hospitality found at Auburn University.
“Since I came here, you know, the way they greet people, the way they meet with people, connect with people, I think that’s what’s fascinating,” Roy said.
In front of the Melton Student Center, students could be found smiling for the Glomerata in front of a Hey Day photo booth or posing with resident raptors from the Auburn University Raptor Center.https://www.theplainsman.com/b/embed/2ca3860b-de9b-4509-a403-8c8afdc081ce
Andrea McCravy, a raptor specialist and former student volunteer at the Raptor Center, explained the center is invited to Hey Day every year to allow for students to meet birds like the infamous bald eagle, Independence, as well as the golden eagle, Nova.
In addition to the photo opportunity, McCravy explained that the raptors serve as educational ambassadors for all of the center’s raptors such as vultures, owls and falcons. Relying heavily on volunteer work, Hey Day serves as another community outreach event for the Raptor Center to spread the word on the rehabilitation services they provide for unreleasable animals.
Erin Mitchell, a freshman in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, volunteered her morning at SGA’s table outside Aubie Hall for Hey Day. She acknowledged the anxiety many freshmen feel when meeting new people at Auburn.
“It’s definitely nerve wracking. It’s not easy to do coming from, like, a smaller place and jumping right into a huge community of people,” Mitchell said. “It’s very lovely for freshmen and people that aren’t familiar with Auburn traditions to kind of get warm and accustomed to all the people around you and get to know their names.”
Stella Grayson, junior in Public Relations, also volunteered for Hey Day. Grayson emphasized that Auburn is all about traditions, and Hey Day is an amazing way to make a huge campus of nearly 33,000 feel more familiar.
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Encapsulating where the heart of this tradition comes from and how the fellowship of Hey Day continues to flourish, Grayson said, “Auburn is all about family.”
