After seven brief seasons of existence, UCLA's Undie Run, a nocturnal event in
which students run through Westwood streets and onto campus in their underwear on Wednesdays of finals weeks, will
be no more. Thank university administrators, who pulled the plug on the
storied event a few days ago, probably because they couldn't figure a
way to make money off it.
A story in the school's Daily Bruin reports
that “Administrators have threatened to cancel the ritual for years now
because of an increased number of accidents and vandalism. Tuesday
night, Undergraduate Students Association Council members were notified
of its termination.”
Campus officials cited the three-headed
monster often invoked to shut down fun in California: concerns
for safety, security and, of course “liability.” The run, whose
route has changed several times, has drawn up to 10,000 spectators —
many of them unaffiliated with UCLA. The specter of all those
non-students and non-alumni is another thing that alarms UCLA
administrators, who apparently have never heard of football games.
With
the campus in summer vacation mode, it's too soon to know if students
will seek another, off-campus venue for the wildly popular event, or
perhaps submit to a campus-sanctioned “safe and sane” version of the
run — possibly one in which a handful of students who have paid top dollar for
the honor get to calmly walk in their skivvies from Bruin Plaza
to Royce Quad and back. One thing they're unlikely to do is replace it
with a streaking run.
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