Zonker Harris Day

G. Trudeau

It’s safe to say that Wesleyan University doesn’t like controversy.  The private liberal arts college, located in Middletown, Connecticut, was founded in 1831 by the Methodist Church and named after John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Movement.  Nonetheless, a recent controversy regarding the name of a music festival has launched the college president into the national media – well, the comics at least.

Back in the 70’s, Wesleyan’s commune-like housing alternative WestCo named its music festival ‘Zonker Harris Day’ in honor of the stoner character in Garry Trudeau’s  Doonebury comic strip.  The festival apparently has plenty of elements that Zonker would approve of, including pot smoking and psychedelia.  Unfortunately, the festival occurs during the college’s spring pre-freshman rush giving visiting parents the impression that the college condones a stoner lifestyle.  The problem is exacerbated when the festival lands on April 20^th, a globally recognized marijuana celebration day. The issue came to a head in the winter of 2008 when President Michael S. Roth and administration officials told WestCo to curtail the use of the name ‘Zonker Harris Day’ or lose their funding.  “Zonker Harris day should not be on the calendar next year, and it won't be,” Roth said. “The institution should make it clear that it's not supporting things that are stupid.”   Residential Life Director Fran Koerting said, “There's no value added to the program by calling it ‘Zonker Harris.' If anything, it perpetuates the whole hippie-druggie stereotype that WestCo is trying to get away from.”  The students expressed outrage that their festival was being censored.  Strangely, the administration objected to the name but not any aspect of the festival itself.  The administration simply had an image problem.  The students renamed the festival ‘Ze Who Must Not Be Named’, a Harry Potter reference, and the controversy simmered.

After the loss of the Zonker Harris Day name, WestCo presidents joked that they should write Garry Trudeau and get him involved.  Last year, they did.  “We have tried to explain that Zonker means so much more than flagrant drug abuse,” the letter read. “In fact, we understand that he has been sober for quite some time, and is currently in pursuit of the perfect tan. We cannot stand for an excellent babysitter, student, football player, and beach rights activist to be so dishonored. You are our (and Zonker’s) best hope in defending a longstanding tradition. Please, if there’s anything at all you might be able to do for us, we’d very much appreciate it.”  Trudeau was impressed with the letter and decided to do something about it. 

The week of November 29^th, 2010, Doonesbury ran a series of comics in which Zonker discovers that his name has been removed from music festival.  In the final day of the series, he breaks ‘the ol’ fourth wall’ and gets President Roth on the phone.  Zonker asks, ‘Can’t we work this out?’  ‘Not a chance! You’re a hippie-druggie type!’ Roth barks back.   In the last frame, Zonker says ‘Dude, you understand I’m a fictional character. Right?’

Concerning the decision to include President Roth in the series, Garry Trudeau wrote “I briefly considered reaching out to him quietly, but I finally decided it’d be better to blindside him,” he wrote. “Otherwise I’d run the risk of his being reasonable, and then where would we be? I’d have to think of something else to write about.” Trudeau said he hopes his strip will help convince Roth to change the name of the festival back.  To date, that hasn’t happened.

Silk, Ezra. ‘Blunt refusal: ResLife says no to funding Zonker Harris Day’, The Wesleyan Argus, vol. CXLIII, no. 33. Feb. 29, 2008.

Lydia Tomkiw. ‘Doonesbury Strip Reopens Zonker Harris Debate’, The Wesleyan Argus. vol. CXLVII, no. 23, Dec 7, 2010.

Question of the Day: What other WestCo festival had its Doonesbury-inspired name removed?