Tap Day at Yale Is Abolished--Was Highly Criticized

Some 80 years after its introduction, Yale's Tap Day has been abolished.

In making the announcement March 26, Dean William P. DeVane of Yale said that "general agreement" had been reached among the secret societies that the method of elections was "undesirable."

This marks the culmination of a long history of bitter dispute over the practice, instituted to put an end to the rioting that accompanied nominations to the secret societies in the 1870's.

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.

"Sacrosanct" in '20's

One of the shortcomings of the procedure was that many men turned down nomination from one club, hoping for another club's nomination, which was not forthcoming.

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."

DeVane has offered the societies proposals for other methods of election, but, as yet, no satisfactory solution has been worked out.