Word: tap
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Some 80 years after its introduction, Yale's Tap Day has been abolished...
...Tap Day took its name from the event in May when Yale juniors crowded into Branford Court, in expectation of being tapped on the shoulder by a member of one of the societies. A "tapped" man was one who had been offered an invitation to join...
Though the societies and their activities were considered "sacrosanct" in the '20's, criticism, especially of Tap Day, increased in recent years. Some members of the societies themselves were among the most annoyed by the method of elections. One advocated eliminating "this spectator sport which makes Yale the annual laughing stock of other universities...
...every Yaleman's life, there has been one traumatic experience that other people do not have. It is Tap Day-the tense afternoon in May when members of the junior class gather to await the whack on the back that will send 90 of them to the six great Senior societies. William Howard Taft had sweated it out (he went Skull & Bones); so had his son Robert (Bones), and Robert's political adversary, Dean Acheson (Scroll & Key). Even that fictional stalwart. Dink Stover (Bones), had trembled at the thought of Tap Day: "The morning was interminable, a horror...
...Dink Stovers who went to Yale after World War II seemed unable to take Tap Day too seriously. Many found it humiliating for the hundreds of juniors rejected; some found the etiquette of the societies ludicrous (in theory, a member hearing his society's name mentioned among outsiders was supposed to leave the room). Finally last week, Yale's Senior societies quietly came to a decision. After 75 years. Tap Day was abolished. Just how the societies will elect members from now on, no one yet knew. Said the Yale Daily News: "Tap Day was not a great...