WHAT'S GOING ON?

There has been a lot of activity lately surrounding this year's Naked Quad Run (NQR), which is less than a month away. The TCU Senate, Programming Board, and administration have all been working on developing new aspects of the "Nighttime Quad Reception," including adding a carnival with food and entertainment and "increasing safety precautions." While all these are good ideas, none of them have anything to do with the major problem associated with the NQR last year and in years past: binge drinking.

While I commend the training of volunteers by Health Services in order to identify signs of alcohol-related illness, it is a shame that nothing is being done before people drink themselves sick. Prevention is far more important and more effective than damage control. The Naked Quad Run does not become safer in any way if medical staff are able to more quickly identify students who are sick. In fact, moral hazard may become a problem: students, cognizant that there has been an increase in safety procedures, may decrease their own personal responsibility and engage in riskier behaviors than they would otherwise.

The argument that providing other activities surrounding the festivities will decrease drinking is ridiculous. Students who were going to drink themselves into oblivion, especially upperclassmen, will do that regardless. Crowding in West Hall and drinking with your friends is the tradition of Naked Quad Run, and anything that addresses other issues is superfluous. The students who take advantage of the new programming will likely be drunk or be the students who were not going to engage in risky behaviors otherwise.

This is not a problem that funding the Programming Board will fix, unless the Programming Board had attempted a massive health education or social norms campaign -- and unfortunately it is too late for both of these. Students will have already decided on their behavior for the night before they set foot on the quad and see free Chinese food.

Therefore, students needed to be educated about reducing their risks of injury while participating in whatever they choose to do at Naked Quad Run. This is not a task that the new Director of Alcohol and Drug Services could have accomplished alone. But it is unfortunate that the Senate and administration have misguidedly focused on entertainment issues. The problem with Naked Quad Run in the past has not been a lack of fun. Rather, it is that the fun has gotten out of hand and that people have engaged in unsafe behaviors. Any solution must address the real problem.

Another completely irrelevant NQR-related initiative is the addition of a fundraising component to the evening. First of all, there is no reason why the Special Olympics should be the organization receiving funds from this event, other than personal connections of individual senators. If anything, funds raised at the NQR should go towards TEMS or Alcoholics Anonymous. Regardless, turning the event into a fundraiser does not address the problems associated with it, but just covers them up. It sends the message that getting wasted and running is acceptable if you are helping a good cause, even though many could argue that school spirit itself is cause enough.

No one has been brave enough to ask the question that matters here. Why do students decimate their bodies with alcohol one night a year? There are a number of explanations: the culmination of a stressful semester, tradition, the availability of alcohol, the need to warm a naked body, liberation from societal mores regarding sexuality, etc. Notice that the lack of things to do on the first night of reading period is not one of them. (In fact, I know several students who have run sober and then returned to the library to study or finish papers.) To make NQR a better experience for those involved, the reasons why people endanger their health and safety must be examined.

And what of the groping? The spectator attendance? The videotaping? Last semester, these were all mentioned as huge problems with the Run. Keeping people in neat lines only scratches at the issues. The roots of these problems, largely related to perceptions of human sexuality at Tufts and in the greater society, have been ignored.

The student body has largely been left in the dark in the seemingly-haphazard planning of this year's NQR. Involving members of the TCU Senate in the planning of this event does not mean that the community itself has been involved. Students involved in student politics are not representative of the average apathetic drinker/streaker who will be running in December. Efforts to figure out the needs of these students have been lacking.

Some people see the problem of the Naked Quad Run in its existence. For these people, adding non-naked, non-drunk events will reduce the problem. But for me, the problem is when students get hurt. It is possible to address this problem without adding new activities to the Run. While it is too late for this year, there is hope for the future, as concepts of health education and promotion are slowly making inroads into the masses of students and administrators at Tufts. I worry, though, that due to the lack of parties with alcohol thus far this year, students will be particularly steadfast in their desire to drink and run.



Adam Pulver is a junior majoring in Political Science and Community Health. He can be reached at pulver@tuftsdaily.com.