An annual tradition to honor the commitment and contributions of UC San Diego staff members, this year’s All Staff Picnic was a hit with more than 3,000 people in attendance.
The annual Watermelon Drop is UC San Diego’s oldest tradition. The event took place Friday, before finals week when this year’s “Watermelon Queen” Justine Hopkins, a second-year theatre major, raced up seven stories of Urey Hall to drop the sacrificial fruit into history. The goal is to break the 1974 splat record of 167 feet, 4 inches. However, this year’s farthest splat missed the mark, coming in at 67 feet, 11 inches. This campus ritual started in 1965 as a physics experiment to determine the terminal velocity of a watermelon when it hits the ground at more than 100 miles per hour.