Ensuring the safety of all the participants was a 100-member security team whose members limited the number of people in the pool at once to no more than 4,000. The event is one that has been associated with drunk partying in the past, and the Albany Student Press reported SUNY Chancellor John Ryan as having said “that he thought the day should be nixed.” One UAlbany official stated that Ryan had not communicated that sentiment to the school.

One student, freshman Mark Rudes, was quoted by the Times Union as proclaiming Fountain Day as “the best day in Albany so far,” even though he had shown up wearing white sneakers. “Next year I’m gonna wear sandals,” he said.