UD Graduation: Senior fountain jump a check on 'bucket list'

The News Journal

NEWARK, Del. — University of Delaware seniors who graduate Saturday donned formal wear and grabbed champagne bottles before stepping into the campus fountain on the Green.

"One, two, three, go!" shouted one woman to her friends, and they all moved their thumbs from the bottles, spraying champagne on bystanders and spilling it into the water.

University of Delaware graduates pop bubbly for a souvenir photo in a campus fountain on the South Green Wednesday. The fountain is a popular spot for photos and dips for graduates - both during sanctioned periods this week and late night, illicit drop-ins.

Similar scenes will play out this week as 2018 graduates take their turn in a campus tradition, but this year many will do it during sanctioned hours rather than sneak in against the rules. The University of Delaware police, who once tried to ban the practice, have shifted their policy and scheduled times for the watery photo ops.

Many students seem to consider fountain jumping as much a must on their list of graduation activities as wearing a gown and tassel for that march across the stage.

"I think ever since I was a freshman, I knew that before you graduate, you gotta jump in the fountain," said Dyllan Moxim of Massachusetts, who has earned a degree in fashion merchandising. "That's just what you have to do."

Most of those who posed Wednesday afternoon were college women in white dresses with graduation caps on. As students waited for their turn in the fountain, they decided on poses.

They don't expect students to limit their photos to the sanctioned hours.

A fountain at the University of Delaware draws seniors in their last days at the school for final photos in the week leading up to commencement.

"If you come here at night, people can be anywhere from fully-clothed to down to their underwear," said Jordan Weisburger of Maryland. The 22-year-old graduates Saturday with a degree in human services.

University of Delaware seniors Emma Charlton of Berwyn, Pa., and Alina Libowitz of Longmeadow, Mass. (right) take part in a bucket list experience - photos and wading in the fountain on the Green as Emma's mother, Lynn photographs them Wednesday.

Weisburger and her friend, Jessie Hannah, 22 of Pittsburg, said the daytime dips are for graduation photos and the night swims are for adventure.

This is the second year campus officials have not actively discouraged photos. Police Captain Jason Pires said they worked with the Dean of Students office, which encouraged them to lift the ban on students posing in the pool for graduating seniors.

Not everyone who visits the fountain enters it, but plenty do in the "bucket list" experience for University of Delaware students in the days before graduation.

"We ... wanted to figure how we could facilitate a way to allow the senior class to check that item off of their bucket list, and do it a manner where it was safe, and would not get them in any trouble with the university," Pires said in an email.

The UDPD has rules for the break in protocol, for example:

There is a maximum of eight people in the fountain at once
Do not dive
Must be appropriately dressed

The rules also include no alcohol, but police did not stop students with champagne Wednesday.

Seniors were allowed to fountain jump three times this week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Most students say this won't curb the late-night drunk swims, and Pires said police expect students to pose in the fountain outside of the scheduled times.

"It's just more fun when there is a risk. It's exciting," said Moxim. "This is just one last hurrah, before we go into the real world."

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE:

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Contact Josephine Peterson at (302) 324-2856 or jhpeterson@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @jopeterson93.