The response to Student Council’s newest initiative has created more of a buzz than a hush.

The day in question, the Friday before Valentine’s Day, was designated for an activity for the student body to partake in. Girls would all be given a heart and not talk to boys without giving up their heart to the first boy that made them crack. The boy with the most hearts at the end of the day would receive a prize. Once news got out of the plan for Friday the 13th, many students became indignant at the premise for the game.

“I thought it was very sexist and misogynistic, and homophobic a little bit, because the whole thing is that the guys get a gift card to take a girl on a date if they get the most hearts, but if a girl manages to keep her heart, then she doesn’t get anything,” Jordan Zeissig, sophomore, said.

The idea that the background for the day might be construed as offensive was fairly widespread among female students.

“It’s like saying that women don’t have a voice,” Leshly Rodriguez, senior, said. “That’s not something I want to be involved in and I don’t understand why the school would allow that. I don’t understand how they didn’t see that.”

This sense of indignation was shared by certain members of the male population as well.

“I think that they weren’t promoting the girls side of it. Guys get to do what they want and girls don’t get a say you know? It’s not really for the girls,” Colton Hanson, junior, said.

Several students, including Maggie Elliott, sophomore, went so far as to petition the event. These students found the exclusive ideals promoted by the day particularly offensive.

“It didn’t include people outside of the gender binary, gender binary being male and female, and it was just sexist, and we didn’t like it,”  Elliott said.

According to Student Council Sponsor Jennifer Nguyen, the implicit messages many students found were completely unintentional.

“The whole purpose of it was truly just a fun game for guys to go above and beyond to convince a girl they were worth getting their hearts,” she said. “Girls would have had the power to choose whether to give their heart away or to keep it.”

Nguyen went on to describe her reception of the backlash.

“Students came and spoke to me about it, very respectfully, and commented that it seemed sexist, that it seemed that we were promoting that women had no voice and male dominance,” she said. “We didn’t think of that because that wasn’t our intention at all.”

Because of the widespread negative response, the administration and Student Council amended the rules of the day.

“Now instead of being boys just trying to get the girls’ hearts everybody gets a heart and the girl and the boy who get the most hearts receive a gift card,” Nguyen said.

This compromise seemed to assuage the vexation felt by the incensed students.

“I feel really happy. [The new rules are] not completely inclusive, but they’re way better,” Elliott said.