The student arrested at the end of last Friday's Naked Quad Run was charged with two counts of assault and battery of officers and with resisting arrest, according to the Tufts University Police Department's (TUPD) public crime log.
The arrest came after the university ended the annual event, which traditionally takes place on the night of the last day of classes of the fall semester, earlier than it had in recent years, resulting in confusion and confrontations with the officers policing the run.
A number of students in attendance reported seeing police officers around 10 p.m. block the Res Quad course in front of Olin Hall with their bodies and prevent some students from continuing to run. When students kept running despite TUPD's efforts to shut down the event early, officers began to use physical force, said the students, who requested to remain anonymous due to the nature of the event.
In an e-mailed response to questions from the Daily, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said that the police did not initiate physical force.
"Other than students who initiated physical contact with the officers, no individuals were treated with physical force," Reitman said in his response, which was provided to the Daily by Alexander Reid, associate director of public relations.
In one instance, according to witnesses, officers pinned a naked male student to the ground; Reitman said the individual "had punched an officer in the face." When the officers were not paying attention, the student ran away, witnesses said.
Reitman said that the incident occurred when officers in front of Olin Hall had been waving students off the course.
"Some participants did not slow their pace at all, but rather charged right at the officers, who put up their arms to avoid being bowled over," he said.
When officers began to pursue the student who had been pinned down, another male student who was wearing boxers stepped in and tried to prevent them from catching the former student, witnesses said. The latter student was arrested for assaulting a correctional officer and a police officer, according to the public log.
But one student who witnessed the incident surrounding the arrest said all the student did was speak with the officers before they threw him to the ground.
"He asked what was going on and stepped toward them," Eva Sikes, a junior who said she was standing about 20 feet away, said. At one point, "they said, ‘He's resisting,' and then he put his hands up and said, ‘I'm not resisting arrest, I'm not resisting arrest.'"
She said that people she was with wanted to file a complaint against the officers over the incident but that officers refused to provide their badge numbers. What's clear, she said, is that the arrested student did not seem to assault the officers.
"I did not see him use any aggression toward them at all," she said.
The student who was arrested, a junior, declined to comment on the record, and Reitman would not provide further details about the case, explaining that it is currently being processed in court and the Tufts student judicial system.
The Middlesex Sheriff's Office helped TUPD police the event, according to Reitman. A spokesperson for the office yesterday afternoon did not return a call for comment.
Reitman said that student safety took priority in the call to stop the run earlier than normal.
"The University and the police reluctantly tolerate the event not because it is thought to be a good idea, but because we think that student safety is better addressed with the event ‘managed' with safety precautions and student and staff monitoring," Reitman said.
The run generally begins at around 10 p.m. and lasts an hour, Reitman said. It started "spontaneously" at 9 p.m. this year, he said, which led the university to decide to cut it off at 10 p.m.
Many students continued to show up around 10 p.m., though, unaware of the university's decision. Organizers do not typically announce official start and end times, although this year a TuftsLife posting by the Programming Board said the "event" started at 9:15 p.m. but did not explicitly refer to the run.
"Over the years, we have seen the majority of incidents and injuries occur toward the end of the event, and that the number of injuries increases as the hour gets later," Reitman said. "Trying to end the event, whenever that happens, is always a challenge," he added.
The university during the night of NQR also received reports of two injuries from falls, including one student with a cut chin and another with a cut lip, according to Reitman. Nine people were brought to the hospital due to substance abuse, while two others refused transport, he said.
In addition, that night TUPD removed a disruptive student from the emergency room at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford, and returned the student to campus, Reitman said. Police did not arrest the student, who was waiting for a friend, he said.
"Clearly, this year's event presented problems," Reitman said. "Administrators and officials from TUPDwill do a thorough briefing of the event."
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Carter Rogers contributed reporting to this article.
