Although popular opinion across the Hill indicates that students are passionate about asserting their rights to let it all hang loose on the Res Quad, the potential consequences for defying the ban on NQR are discouraging many from enacting forms of protest, nude or otherwise.
"I think they made [the consequences] harsh enough that students wouldn't do it," sophomore Trey Lawrence said. He added that he hadn't heard of any students planning on defying the ban in any way.
Sophomore Annie King agreed.
"Ever since [Dean Reitman's] email about what the consequences are, the majority of people I've talked to have said that it's not worth the consequences."
Senior Aleta Pierce said that her decision not to participate in NQR was not solely predicated on the threat of suspension, but also on other factors.
"If they banned it and sent out a threatening email and I had a bunch of friends who still wanted to do it, I would, but very few people are doing it, so I wouldn't do it alone. It's more like the amount of people who are doing it, not the threat," Pierce said.
Pierce added that the number of students defying the ban would also affect the university's ability to enforce it.
"If the whole school did it, then what would they do? They can't suspend the whole school," she said.
King said that she was frustrated with the ambiguity of the ban and consequences outlined in Reitman's email, and thought that this might further discourage students from attempting any protest activity.
"They probably left it open−ended in order to scare people into not doing anything at all, which I think is kind of unfair," she said.
However, Pierce interpreted the vague nature of the email differently, saying that since the email only referred to NQR, it allowed students to infer that they might not face the same consequences for doing similar activities on different days.
"I've heard people saying, ‘What if we ran around naked on the President's Lawn in the middle of the day?' because then it's not technically the same," Pierce said.
In his Nov. 15 email to the student body, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman wrote, "It is important that [students] know about the ban and the serious consequences that can result for those who disregard it … University officials and the police will respond to any students who attempt to test the ban."
Reitman told the Daily that he thought that any ambiguity in his email had been clarified by an open letter to the Daily written by Director of Public and Environmental Safety Kevin Maguire.
In the letter, Maguire wrote that "students who are determined to violate the ban on the NQR by being intoxicated or engaging in indecent exposure will be processed in one of two ways. If they become violent, he wrote, they are subject to arrest for "disorderly conduct and/or assault and battery … Students who are not disorderly or violent but who are in need of services based on intoxication will be placed into protective custody, identified for further action by the Dean of Students Office in accordance with the new [Committee on Student Life] CSL policy, and transported to the nearest medical facility for evaluation."
Reitman added that the ban also includes a prohibition on high levels of intoxication.
"It would be the same level of dangerous drinking that would result in a transport, and not anything more than that usual standard," Reitman said.
King said she was disappointed with Reitman's decision to send an email to the parents of Tufts students about the consequences of participating in NQR.
"I think it was really disrespectful to involve parents. [The administration] should realize that we are all responsible for our own decision−making. It doesn't show me that the administration has a lot of faith in us, which is disconcerting," King said.
Reitman explained that he wanted to notify parents so that they would not be taken unaware should their son or daughter have disciplinary actions taken against them.
"We need to end this event. The consequences are potentially dramatic, and frankly I think that families should know about that ahead of time because I don't want them calling with surprise if something happens to their sons or daughters," Reitman said.
He added that the response from parents has been varied.
"There have been different responses. A few have said that they wish there could be a level of trust between the police and Tufts students and administration in order to continue this event. Overwhelmingly the response has been in the direction of ‘thanks for keeping us informed and ending the event,'" Reitman said.
Pierce agreed that she wished that Tufts could trust students to continue participating in NQR as they had in the past, even before the administration condoned NQR.
"I think they're being a little extreme. [NQR] used to happen with the administration not wanting it to, and then they decided to make it a university event," she said.
However, King said that for her, come the last day of classes, the bottom line will be that her desire to advocate for the naked run will be outweighed by her desire to remain at Tufts.
"NQR is about school pride, and not being able to come back [during spring semester] is totally not school pride. I love NQR but I wouldn't want to risk suspension," she said.
