A new student-run event will offer Tufts undergraduates a fully clothed way to celebrate the end of classes next December.
The event, known as WinterFest, will take place on the Medford-Somerville campus on the evening of Dec. 12, the last day of fall semester classes. Featuring music, food, a snow sculpture competition and other attractions, its creators envision the WinterFest as an event that will appeal broadly to the student body and present an alternative to the Naked Quad Run (NQR), which the university announced in March it would no longer tolerate.
NQR, a long-standing Tufts tradition with origins in the 1970s, grew from an informal curiosity to an officially sanctioned event as the university lent barricades and police to the Res Quad course in an attempt to ensure participant safety beginning in 2003. The event, however, became progressively more associated with alcohol abuse in recent years, resulting in physical injuries from falling and exposure to cold temperatures, as well as the threat of alcohol poisoning.
This last danger proved the most grave, with several students coming dangerously close to serious harm and even death as a result of drinking on the night of NQR, according to University President Lawrence Bacow. In an op-ed published in the Daily in March, Bacow announced that such a level of risk had become unacceptable and that NQR would not be permitted to continue.
In response to this announcement, Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Sam Wallis and Programming Board co-Chair Sarah Habib, both graduating seniors, sent an email to the student body soliciting proposals for a new tradition that would take place on the night NQR customarily occurred.
A "new tradition" takes shape
A committee comprised of Programming Board members and TCU Senators reviewed 15 student proposals before unanimously deciding on the WinterFest model in April, according to Habib.
The committee coordinated with Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds, the Department of Facilities Services and the Tufts University Police Department in selecting the new event, Habib added.
Wallis said this month that the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of the President had seen a copy of the WinterFest event proposal.
The format of the event features several smaller events that will be spread across the Academic Quad and President's Lawn.
Snow machines and ramps will be brought to campus to construct a tubing course on the President's Lawn, making the event more ambitious in scope than NQR. A tubing course will also run downhill, while a heated tent will feature a DJ, hot chocolate and food.
One of the most prominently featured attractions is a snow sculpture competition in which teams of five or more students will compete for a $5,000 prize to be applied toward group programming. The snow sculpture contest revives an old Tufts tradition from the 1950s in which campus groups competed against each other to build the best snow sculpture, Wallis said.
In its design, WinterFest evokes similar collegiate winter carnivals like those at Dartmouth and Middlebury Colleges. The Dartmouth Winter Carnival this year celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Don't call it a replacement
WinterFest, like NQR, will be student-run and co-sponsored by the TCU Senate and Programming Board, according to Wallis and Habib.
Wallis and Habib expressed their satisfaction with WinterFest's design.
"We wanted to come up with something great for students to enjoy on their last day of classes," Habib said. "I think the whole student body is going to get excited about this." Habib expressed a desire to return to the Medford-Somerville campus in December for the event.
Wallis praised WinterFest for its varied nature, which he called "more inclusive" than NQR. "We think this event will appeal to a broader swath of students," he said.
TCU Senator Wyatt Cadley, a rising junior who served on the committee that selected WinterFest, agreed. He said many committee members came to the table with different goals in mind, but that WinterFest emerged as the winning proposal because of its wide-ranging appeal.
"We've created a space where students can get together, where there are activities going on that everyone can enjoy," Cadley, who is the incoming TCU Vice President, said. "I think that's something really meaningful, that can give Tufts a sense of identity."
"From the looks of it, it has the potential to be a really cool programming event," incoming TCU President Tomas Garcia, a rising senior, said. "[It's] a way to bring the Tufts community together at the end of the semester."
University administrators are committed to supporting the new tradition, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman told the Daily earlier this month. The university since 2003 has lent resources in support of the Nighttime Quad Reception, and that support will continue with WinterFest.
"We're intending to be as helpful as we possibly can to make it a success," Reitman said. "I hope it takes root quickly, and I hope it's successful."
Students and administrators alike emphasized that WinterFest is not simply an NQR replacement.
"The student community has really come to look forward to a culminating event after the long fall semester, and it's something that has been the focus of a lot of school spirit and a lot of Tufts pride," Reitman said.
"To think of it as a replacement or an exact alternative is not the way to look at it, because that's not what it's designed to be," he said.
Cadley further stressed a hope that WinterFest will become an established part of Tufts culture despite lingering resentment over NQR's fate.
"It's well-understood that there's a lot of student anger about the end of NQR, but in the end, this is totally different," Cadley said. "Some students are going to find this event more accessible and some might not be as willing to embrace it right away."
Wallis agreed.
"We know NQR is irreplaceable," Wallis said. "But with the options available to us, I think this is a really positive step going forward and it's something I think in time is going to grow to be as popular as or more popular than NQR was."
