Dear Editor,
As a recent Tufts alumnus and former Tufts Community Union Senator who staffed the Naked Quad Run (NQR) throughout my four years at Tufts, I applaud University President Lawrence Bacow's decision to end NQR once and for all ("NQR Reconsidered," March 14, 2011).
NQR was never — or at least not in recent years — a "tradition" in the true sense of the term. Rather, it had devolved into merely an annual event whose original meaning has been lost amid rampant alcohol-related injuries, serious privacy concerns and a growing hostility between students and the administration and police officers whose only job is to protect them.
Tufts has a number of proud traditions, including some that are university-sponsored, like senior dinners at Gifford House (a tradition President Bacow himself began and that President-elect Anthony Monaco rightly intends to continue) and candlelight ceremonies on the Hill at matriculation and commencement. Others, such as sledding down the President's Lawn (although in a post-tray world this tradition requires a newfound expression of Tufts-style creativity), parading in the streets after presidential elections and World Series victories, and, most notably, painting the cannon, are entirely "spontaneous" — and entirely student-driven.
During my last week at Tufts, I painted and guarded the cannon with a friend who had never painted it before. We asked every passerby that night to spray paint his or her initials on its side. Miraculously, the cannon stayed painted for commencement, a brown and blue tribute to the senior class and the perfect embodiment of a time-honored Tufts tradition.
I support student-led efforts to "create" or "invent" new traditions, but as President Bacow's op-ed suggests, traditions can be fleeting. The Tufts community should embrace positive traditions — whether or not they are officially sponsored events — that do not demean Tufts by conflating nudity and alcoholism with "tradition." Instead, traditions should celebrate our shared history and our connections to one another.
Sincerely,
Matthew Shapanka, LA '09
