The Crimson reported two years ago that William F. Abely ’99 and his blocking group were the first to perform a sacrificial ritual on the eve of Housing Day.

“I don’t know where the genesis for the idea came from but we ended up taking our plant from PBHA sale at the beginning of the year and brought it down to the Weeks foot bridge, doused it in Jack Daniels and lit it on fire and dumped it over the edge of the bridge and hoped for the river,” Abely told The Crimson in 2009.

The group ended up in a suite overlooking the river in Leverett House—their first choice.

The antics of the Class of 2012, which Dingman described in his e-mail as “extreme,” required the Cambridge Fire Department to respond to a possible fire at the Weld Boat House.

Members of HUPD and officers of the Cambridge and Massachusetts State Police forces were called.

“My observation from two years ago is that these activities were very unsafe for students,” McIntosh said.

Concerned over safety and liability issues, administrators last year banned River Run, implementing the same restrictions for Housing Day eve that are in effect tonight.

According to McIntosh, although some students still participated in illicit River Run activities, last year represented a great improvement.

“There certainly was a very dramatic shift from the year before that, when I feared that significant numbers of students were engaging in dangerous activities,” McIntosh said.

The Freshman Dean’s Office hopes that instead of drinking, students will attend “Fresh Fest,” an alternative event tonight in Annenberg organized by the First-Year Social Committee at the same time that River Run festivities could potentially occur.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.