The 2018 senior class will see two major changes to the standard traditions: “Frat Day” is gone, and at graduation all students will wear the same color gown.

In the past, men wore blue robes and women wore white during the graduation ceremony.

The new gowns are blue with an embroidered Creek crest on a white collar. Both genders will wear the same robe come graduation.

Complaints from both students and parents had been made about the two-color system.

“The whole push is to make sure that we respect students’ identities, the space they occupy and things like that,” Spectrum Co-Sponsor Peter Hornbien said.

Previously, non-binary students had been forced to choose a gender, and sometimes parents disagreed with what color gown their child wore.

With complaints mounting and a changing social landscape, the administration had been looking for alternatives to the old system.

“It’s something that’s been on my mind for the past few years, but we finally had something doable, it was great, it was beautiful,” Activities Director Krista Keogh said.

The new, custom gowns will come at no extra cost to the families of seniors; the school plans to absorb the increase in price from what parents paid at the beginning of the year.

Not all students agreed with the changes, spurring senior Sam Cole to create a petition against the changes. It collected major traction overnight and by the morning had 387 signatures.

“This [petition] was more of the catalyst to it than the actual issue,” Cole said. “We just wanted to get more of a voice with Student Senate and the administration. We felt decisions were being made without actually representing the student body.”

While the administration kept the changes, meetings were made with Cole in order to increase communication between the students and administration.

“I know that at the end of the day the decision that we are making is what is best for kids, all kids, and I know it will look really cool,” Keogh said.

The administration had planned to unveil the gowns around Spring break, but word got out during testing of a prototype robe.

The gown has been on display outside activities since early February.

The exclusion of fraternity dress up day comes in the wake of increased instances of rape and death in college fraternities around the nation.

“The fraternity scene is not in a good place for a number of reasons, whether it be around sexual assault, drug abuse, hazing, around any of it,” Keogh said. “I was in a sorority. I passionately believe that I got most of my leadership skills from that experience. That being said, I don’t like that that’s what the connotation is of Frat Day.”

Creek administrators believed the day didn’t represent the school.

Many students, though, looked forward to the day, generally regarding it as the most fun day. Kids usually wore the typical khakis and polo while playing root beer pong in the quad.

“A lot of the teachers here were in frats, a lot of the students want to be in frats, and I think it’s unfair to take it away from them without giving them a voice just bcause you assume bad things about the fraternities,” Cole said.

Currently Student Senate is in talks to decide what theme will replace “Frat Day” during the seniors’ dress-up week.