PASADENA, Calif.—Ditch Day, the annual end-of-school day of pranks and games at the California Institute of Technology, is today. On one day each spring, kept secret until the last minute, Caltech seniors ditch their classes and vanish from campus.
Because the rooms of absent seniors are today vulnerable to all sorts of mischievous goings-on, the seniors have spent considerable time prior to Ditch Day devising ingenious and elaborate locks and obstacles for their rooms. Underclass students will spend the day trying to get through these "stacks"-named for the stacks of books and furniture that were used in decades past to barricade the doors-and into the seniors' rooms.
Modern-day stacks can be far more elaborate than just a physical barricade, and often take the underclass students far away from the room itself on scavenger hunts, quests, adventures, red-herring searches, and the like. Indoor and outdoor activities take place throughout campus all day.
Many of the Ditch Day activities have photographic potential for print and broadcast journalists, and for this reason Caltech invites the media each year to come to campus and cover the happenings. In recent years, in fact, a crew from The Tonight Show has shown up a couple of times for Ditch Day.
Media wishing to report on Ditch Day are usually at an advantage by arriving as early as possible, though events will continue throughout the day. The Caltech Media Relations staff at 315 S. Hill Ave. will be available to take media to student activities that have good potential for news coverage.
