With apologies to T.S. Eliot, Kenyon students know that February is truly the cruelest month. On campus, it is known for frigid temperatures, sheets of ice covering every walkable surface in Gambier and a decided lack of fun in the face of midterm exams — and this phenomenon is not new. In 1991, a lavish party tradition emerged as a means of staving off the February blues. Dubbed “Philander’s Phling,” students enjoyed a wide variety of diversions intended to liven up the cold Ohio winter with music, dancing and community.
According to a 2014 article in the Alumni Bulletin, Phling was the brainchild of former College President Philip H. Jordan Jr. and Charles Davison P’87, a trustee as well as a Kenyon parent and friend of Jordan’s. In a discussion about the “dreariness of February,” as Jordan termed it, the idea of throwing a “special party” was floated, and Davison agreed to donate money to fund the event. He had made his career as a business executive and kept his initial contribution anonymous, though his donations eventually created the Davison Fund for Student Life. The Alumni Bulletin quoted his son, Andrew Davison ’87, as stating that his father wanted to cheer up the beleaguered student community: “He appreciated that it was a tough time of year, a lot of studying going on, waiting for spring. He was an incredible guy.”
With the plan hatched and the funds secured, a student committee was formed to organize the party. Like all good Kenyon advertising, the first signs of something big coming appeared in Peirce Dining Hall. The Alumni Bulletin reported, “The first stirrings of Philander’s Phebruary Phling came with playing cards dropped on the dining tables in Peirce Hall…Anticipation grew when outsized dice were hung in Peirce without explanation.” The Collegian broke the story in the Feb. 14, 1991, issue, writing, “The weekend will begin at 9:00 p.m. on Friday night with a semi-formal dance and at 10 p.m. a casino, both in Peirce Hall. Big band and jazz music will be played during the dance. Those attending are encouraged to dress as formally as possible.” According to the Alumni Bulletin, the weekend also featured “a pair of hot tubs outside of Farr Hall” and a limousine service shuttling students to and from the main event.
The next week, the Collegian published a recap of the event, highlighting the fun had by students as well as some of the less successful elements of Phling brought about by the casino games: “This is where the only real problem of the night occurred. Money was stolen from behind the gambling tables and receipts were easily forged. Bidding for the top items, such as a walkman and a mountain bike, was in the billions of dollars.” In spite of the theft, though, the article ultimately called the event “an enormous success.”
In following years, elaborate themes ranged from carnivals to fairytales, speakeasies (for the “phlappers and phelons” among us) to the lost city of Atlantis, and anything and everything in between. The 1993 Phling boasted a Mardi Gras theme, with the schedule of events leading up to the main party and casino printed in the Feb. 4 issue of the Collegian; it included a Cajun dinner in Peirce and Gund Commons (which was, at that point in time, a dining hall), dance lessons and a DIY Mardi Gras mask making event.
As one might imagine, planning and executing such a large-scale event was an incredibly labor-intensive process. The Alumni Bulletin quotes former Dean of Students Tacci Smith as stating, “A lot of time and money went into it. We literally started planning in early October. A lot of time was spent on picking the theme. It had to be special.” However, student organizations grew increasingly wishy-washy about getting involved with Phling in the early 2000s, as the Alumni Bulletin explained: “No single student organization took ownership of the event, and the planning and hands-on work fell increasingly to administrators. Student planning committees that once numbered fifteen dropped to four.” Attendance gradually dwindled, and in 2011, it became clear that the effort put into planning was not worth the outcome.
Another significant contributing factor to the decline and fall of Philander’s Phling was the focus on alcoholic consumption and the surrounding chaos. The Village Record column from the Feb. 10, 2011, issue of the Collegian listed two separate instances of “theft of student property” during Phling. Former Director of Campus Safety Robert Hooper, who was present for every Phling, told the Alumni Bulletin, “I would say, year in and year out, those who had to go to the hospital because of alcohol poisoning were in that four-to-five range. I remember one year we had three [EMS] squads on the campus at one time.”
The last official instance of Phling was in 2011, but in 2014, a resurrected version of the party dubbed “Philander’s Ball” made an appearance in the Tomsich Arena at the then-Kenyon Athletic Center. According to the Collegian, it was made possible via “Pheb Phunds,” a $10,000 endowment for events hosted in February instituted following the demise of Phling. A major difference between the two events was that professors were invited to attend Philander’s Ball, whereas Phling had been limited to students. Unfortunately, Philander’s Ball didn’t catch on, with no event planned the following year.
Philander’s Phling may not be livening up February on campus anymore, but it goes down in history as an example of Kenyon students’ ingenuity in how to have a good time. Who knows — maybe some brave student organization will take up the mantle and provide a phraction of Phebruary phun to tide us over until spring break!