Dozens of students last night engaged in a partially nude run around the Res Quad in a peaceful, sober protest against University President Lawrence Bacow's decision to end the annual Naked Quad Run (NQR), typically held in mid-December to celebrate the end of classes. Sophomore Howie Levine, who did not participate in the run but came to the Res Quad last night to ensure there was an impartial witness to the run, said he was impressed with the TUPD's restraint. After consulting the dean of student affairs, the director of public safety and the president of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, I agreed that we should try to manage the run rather than end it. Most participants were not nude upon arrival at the Res Quad, but many shed their clothes when they saw that the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers at the run were remaining inside their squad cars. Wallis is confident that the replacement event will take hold as a new component of the Tufts experience, adding that events like Fall Ball and Winter Bash had been created in a similar fashion. We cannot allow this to happen, and the Naked Quad Run will not continue. I have asked seniors Sam Wallis, president of the TCU, and Sarah Habib, co−chair of the Programming Board, to work with Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman and others to come up with a plan to create a new campus−wide winter event that will engage the larger community.
– Tufts University students celebrating the end of fall classes will have to keep their clothes on from here on out, at least in the campus quad. The president of the Massachusetts school has ended the tradition of the Naked Quad Run, which attracts throngs of students who shed their clothes and run around nude in chilly December. In an op-ed in the Tufts Daily student newspaper, Lawrence Bacow says it's become too dangerous, mostly because of booze. "Even if I did not act now, NQR would end some day," writes Bacow. "The only question is whether a student has to die first. We cannot allow this to happen, and the Naked Quad Run will not continue." Students aren't happy, and dozens protested the decision by running around the quad in what the campus paper described as a "partially nude" protest.