For years, Hawk Hosts saying “happy birthday” to one another mid-tour — even when it wasn’t their birthday — was an inside joke. Now, they risk potential consequences if they continue.

The Hawk Hosts, St. Joe’s student ambassadors and tour guides, were informed in a Feb. 17 staff meeting of a new rule stating they were no longer allowed to say “happy birthday” to fellow Hawk Hosts during tours. 

The meeting was led by Esther Besson, admissions counselor and supervisor of the Hawk Hosts, who communicated the rule from university officials. 

“While tour guides greeting students around campus is an authentic display of our University’s warm culture, offering fictional birthday greetings is an unnecessary distraction,” Besson wrote on behalf of the Office of Undergraduate Admission in an email to The Hawk. 

Liz Gatti, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions, said tour attendees often highly compliment the Hawk Hosts. 

“I decided, after learning about students wishing each other happy birthday when on tours, to eliminate that practice,” Gatti wrote in an email to The Hawk. “I believe it’s important for us to remain authentic and focus on the excitement and beauty of our campus as our Hawk Hosts deliver important facts about Hawk Hill.”

Chloe Palm-Rittle ’26, who has worked as a Hawk Host for three years, said she was surprised by the new rule, as her experience with birthday wishes during tours has been overwhelmingly positive. 

“I feel like it actually enriches the tours, and I just think that it’s such a minuscule thing that brings a lot of joy to our tours, to the tour guides, to our community,” Palm-Rittle said.

The new rule was shared following an anonymous complaint, according to Hawk Host Matthew Winarto ’26, who attended the Feb. 17 meeting. 

A group of Hawk Hosts attempted to negotiate the rule at the following staff meeting Feb. 20, Winarto said. Among them was Mason Kimball ’28, who said he had concerns about the potential repercussions that could follow after multiple warnings. 

Kimball said the Hawk Hosts were ultimately unable to reverse the rule, despite working together to suggest a compromise. 

“The reason why we were fighting so hard is because we felt like it was a part of our culture,” Kimball said. 

While birthday greetings are not the center of the Hawk Host culture, Sofia Le Fallas ’18, M.S. ’22, former Hawk Host and former assistant director of undergraduate admissions, said the greetings are representative of the connections Hawk Hosts make with one another. 

“Hawk Host is so much more than just a silly ‘happy birthday’ across campus,” Le Fallas said. “It’s a community. It’s a family. It changed the college experience for a lot of the students there, and my experience as well.” 

Winarto said tour guides wishing their friends a “happy birthday” during tours is not just a tradition at St. Joe’s. Many college campuses, like Lehigh University, Colgate University and University of California, Davis, also participate. 

For this reason, Winarto said he was “shocked” when he found out about the rule. 

“I’m very bummed, especially for the newer generations of Hawk Hosts, where they don’t have that tradition that we had before and they can’t continue that down the line,” Winarto said. 

Of course, there are occasions in which it is a Hawk Host’s real birthday. In these events, Winarto said tour guides now give birthday greetings quietly or in private.

Aside from missing the fun, both Palm-Rittle and Kimball also expressed concerns about the rule limiting Hawk Host’s speech. 

“I just hate the feeling of the tour guides having to feel like they have to police their language, or police how they interact with tours or feel like we can’t have fun with the job because that’s why we’re hired,” Palm-Rittle said. “We’re supposed to be a fun team.”

Multiple write-ups can potentially result in termination, depending on the circumstances, according to Palm-Rittle, who served on the Hawk Host executive team during the 2024-2025 academic year. This process is also explained in the 2025-2026 Hawk Host Manual. However, Palm-Rittle, Winarto and Kimball said that to their knowledge, there has not yet been an instance of disciplinary action for the new rule. 

Despite uncertainty about the future of birthday greetings during campus tours, Le Fallas emphasized the importance of continuing to maintain a strong sense of community among Hawk Hosts. 

“Let’s focus on continuing to build a strong culture, continuing to build a culture of trust and family and just fun,” Le Fallas said.