Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Toby Hicks and Anna Cororaton/DP Photo Illustration [Click to enlarge]

Engineering freshman Conor Walsh unzips his pants on Locust Walk, and everyone looks.

In fact, they stare.

A small audience has gathered at 2:15 on a recent Sunday morning as Walsh, returning from a night of drinking at off-campus parties, urinates all over the statue of Penn's beloved founder.

"Moments are made at the Ben Franklin statue, and I think I contributed to that," he says.

Minutes later, a College sophomore who wished to remain anonymous, jumps atop "Ben on the Bench." Urine splashes from the top of Franklin's head, then trickles down the side of his bronze body.

The sophomore jumps down and raises his arms triumphantly in the air.

They're not the first, and they certainly won't be the last.

Though University officials say they are unaware of the late-night lewdness, it's common knowledge among most students.

Some even say the statue, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month, is now the center of an unofficial tradition.

"The lore is such that, when you walk down Locust Walk, if you step on the compass, you fail your first midterm; you shouldn't sit next to Ben Franklin because people urinate on him; and what happens under the button stays under the button," Senior Class President Puneet Singh said, referring to other unsanctioned Penn traditions. "You hear all those things freshman year."

Junior Class President Brett Perlmutter said he knows at least six people who have done it, though he has no plans to.

"When I was a freshman, it was like bragging rights marching back to the Quad," Perlmutter said. "I've heard it described as something you have to do before you graduate."

The practice isn't a recent phenomenon - before "Ben on the Bench," there was Ben on the Green.

College alumnus Dan Wolf, who went to Penn from 1965 to 1968, said he remembers his peers urinating on the Franklin statue in front of College Hall.

"If you have a choice between peeing on a tree and peeing on Ben Franklin, is there a choice?" Wolf asked.

It was "more of a humorous type of thing" that only a handful of people were aware of, he said.

Continued...

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