Throughout campus last week, it was hard to miss the buzz that Full Moon on the Quad, the annual gathering dedicated to freshman and senior saliva-swapping, was only a few days away. After all, tomorrow marks the first full moon of fall quarter, an event that for many students has typically signaled the coming of this highly publicized Stanford rite of passage.

However, Associate Dean of Students Nancy Howe set the record straight to The Daily: “There will be a Full Moon, and it’s not this Tuesday.”

Rather, the event will take place almost a full month later, on Wednesday, Oct. 27.

For many eager freshmen, this news may come as a letdown. But they can take comfort in the fact that this year, unlike last year, Full Moon will actually take place on the same day as the astronomical activity for which it is named, according to junior Joey Natoli, the chair of a committee that examined last year’s event and made recommendations on how to improve it for this year.

The misunderstanding about the date of Full Moon on the Quad forced some people to change their social plans for the week. The Kappa Alpha fraternity, working with the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, was planning a pre-party for tomorrow night, according to KA social manager junior Chris Bobel. They only became aware of their mistake after trying register the party with the University.

Natoli and Howe also talked with The Daily about changes that are planned for the event to make it more fun and less focused on alcohol consumption. The biggest of these changes is that this year, all of the activities surrounding Full Moon will be organized through Absolute Fun, a social programming board that sponsors campus-wide, non-alcoholic events.

“We have not had one group of people running Full Moon on the Quad for the past five years,” Natoli said. “Now the leader will be Absolute Fun.”

However, Howe recognizes that the University will not be able to prevent students from drinking, or “pre-gaming,” before the event, nor, she says, will it attempt to. She said that the same amount of security that was present last year would be available this year.

“The main issue is not whether students choose to drink or not drink, but whether they know they don’t have to drink or drink to excess to have a good time,” Howe said.

However, she did admit that the event has become associated with alcohol, something she would like to see changed. Last year, several students were hospitalized after having consumed too much prior to arriving at the Quad.

“In the last few years, some students perceived alcohol consumption as a goal in and of itself.”

Both Howe and Natoli described the linking of Full Moon to excessive alcohol consumption as a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Instead, Howe said the organizers are trying to restructure Full Moon as a “fun, zany, last-minute event.” She suggested that students should use their creativity to have a good time, like dressing up in outlandish costumes.

Natoli said that there would be live music at the event this year and that the organizers were looking into carnival-like sources of entertainment, like a fire breather and a sword swallower. He said that part of the organizers’ strategy is to provide “watchers” — those who come to Full Moon but choose not to lock lips — with something else to do.

Sophomore Tania Juarez, who is in charge of organizing this year’s festivities through Absolute Fun, said that there would be a “freak show” theme with entertainment on three different stages.

Although Absolute Fun events have often suffered from low attendance and negative word-of-mouth, Natoli does not expect the organization change to keep people away on Oct. 27.

“There may very well be a stigma against Absolute Fun, but the benefits of having it run by the same group each year outweigh the stigma,” he said. “Full Moon on the Quad will never have problems attracting attendance.”

Natoli also said that the decision to release the exact date of Full Moon was a result of misconceptions of the many students who believed the event would be held tomorrow. A few days earlier, Natoli told The Daily that the organizers were waiting to release the date in order to prevent a large number of non-Stanford elements from showing up.

“In the end, so many people thought that it was going to be tomorrow that correcting the misperception outweighed the benefits from delaying the release,” Natoli said.

Of the 3,000 people that were estimated by the Office of Student Activities to have been in attendance at last year’s Full Moon on the Quad, Natoli guessed that only 1 to 2 percent were not from Stanford. He speculated that this year that number “won’t change much.”

Nonetheless, many people on campus, freshmen and upperclassmen alike, were thrown for a loop by the confusion.

“I’ve heard chatter that it’s on Tuesday,” said senior Robbie Evans, a resident advisor in Roble. “I just found out very recently that that is definitely not the case. But some people I’m sure still think it is.”

Evans said he found out when he received an e-mail that was sent to a staff e-mail list by Juarez.

He described the mood of freshmen in his dorm toward the event as “a mix of anxiety and excitement.”

“It’s something new, it’s a random hook-up, and you never know what’s going to happen, how you’re supposed to act.”