Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman sent an email to students and their families yesterday explaining that any student who participates in the Naked Quad Run (NQR) this year will face suspension for the spring 2012 semester.
Former University President Lawrence Bacow last March banned NQR, an event typically held in mid−December to celebrate the end of classes, citing risks to student safety as a result of a combination of dangerous levels of alcohol consumption, icy roads and freezing temperatures.
The Committee on Student Life (CSL), composed of faculty and undergraduate and graduate students, voted to include the policy banning the run in the university's Code of Conduct for the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
The decision to include the new policy in the Code of Conduct was prompted by the university's desire to ensure all students were aware of the ban, Reitman told the Daily.
The policy stipulates that students who help organize an event in violation of the ban or claim to have run in defiance of the ban will also be subject to suspension. These clauses were added to the policy, CSL Student Chair Brian Yi said, to ensure that students took the ban seriously.
University officials will decide if semi−nudity is considered a violation of the ban on a case−by−case basis.
The CSL held three meetings before voting unanimously on the consequences of the ban on Nov. 8, according to Reitman. One of these meetings took place last semester and two occurred this semester.
Yi, a sophomore, explained that the committee examined the policies of other schools that have banned events similar to NQR in order to develop their own policy.
"We formulated a similar consequence [as other schools] for those who are participating or involved with NQR," Yi said. "We thought something that was severe enough that people wouldn't run NQR would be appropriate."
Reitman urged students to take the ban seriously.
"I am hoping very much that students will not test the policy and will not violate the ban," he said. "This really was an event that over the years has sent more people to the hospital for varying reasons than anything else that happened in the calendar."
Yi expects that most students will respect the ban and not risk the planned punishment.
"I don't think any Tufts student would want to jeopardize their academics by participating in an event like this and having an academic suspension in their transcript," he said.
Although students may resent the ban, Yi said, he anticipates it will ultimately be in the best interest of everyone's safety.
"It's not meant to take the fun out of anything, it was just purely we wanted people to be safe," he said.
The university is in the process of planning WinterFest, a winter carnival event designed to serve as an alternative end of the semester celebration for students.
The unseasonably warm weather could turn WinterFest into a more general celebratory event, Reitman said, without the ice sculpture carving events and other snow−related activities the university had initially planned to include.
