It’s graduation season once again, a period in the middle of spring where fourth years sport black gowns, go to their favorite bars for a last hoorah, and search for the perfect balloon to carry up the Lawn. It’s a time when they reflect on their growth throughout college and anticipate what’s coming next. As they wave goodbye to what they once called home, they look back at the wonderful memories made here.
And for a portion of these fourth years, they won’t forget the time, or times, they ran butt naked through the Academical Village at 2:30 in the morning.
Whether you have witnessed it or not, “Streaking the Lawn” has been one of UVA’s most popular traditions. The act can be traced back to 1937, when the student newspaper College Topics reported that a group of first-year students ran from the Corner to their rooms “Adam and Eve style.” For years, students have taken the challenge to strip off their clothes at the Rotunda, run nearly a thousand feet down to the Homer statue, kiss its backside, then sprint back up to the Rotunda and whisper “Goodnight, Mr. Jefferson.”
We don’t have exact data for the number of “streakers” each year, but the ones who can proudly hold these names should own it like a badge. Streaking the Lawn holds the charm of UVA, and like many other traditions, should be preserved. Hence, here are my reasons for why streaking the lawn should be a requirement for graduating.
A Test of Agility
Many colleges encourage their students to stay active and indulge in wellness. UVA offers many events and programs to stay fit, ranging from group exercise classes to marathons. As a prestigious institution, the university should not only want academically inclined students, but also those who are physically inclined.
Schools all over the country require students to partake in physical tests, such as the FitnessGram Pacer for K-12 institutions and swimming tests for colleges. Streaking the Lawn is a simple yet effective model to prove one’s robustness. A task of sprinting across grass, with no clothes weighing the body down, is much easier than your average “running the mile” in PE class.
Bearing Traditions
UVA boasts their traditions that students hold for decades, such as special lingo and upholding a student-run government. At the same time, colleges can evolve rapidly over a few years. We see new trends come in while old ones come out. Traditions are vulnerable to disappearing if a wave of change comes to UVA.
However, if we require traditions to be part of the UVA curriculum, they become preserved as every student is exposed to them. If we are so proud of our college being rooted in customs and quirks, our culture on Grounds should not be vulnerable to their disappearance.
The Honor Code
The phrase in the back of every UVA student’s mind is “do not cheat, lie, or steal.” Students are bound to this code everywhere on Grounds or anywhere else they represent themselves as a student of the university. We know not to look over each other’s papers on tests, or leave lost valuables in the library. However, so many students break this code when it comes to streaking the Lawn.
A streaker can cheat their run if they don’t run the full distance across the Lawn. Even after finishing the daring task, many of them lie when their friends ask them if they streaked to avoid embarrassment. And, as some unlucky individuals experience, some partygoers pull a prank to steal a streaker’s clothes mid-run. It’s shameful that all three “don’ts” in the honor code are ignored for this tradition.
As a university, we need to do better. If the Honor Committee recognizes how many violations occur while streaking the Lawn, they won’t focus on punishment, but more on protecting the community of trust. If students are required to streak, there should be a witness (preferably a well-respected professor) to watch over the entire run and protect the streaker’s clothes. The witness can mark the requirement as “complete” when the full run is completed. The tradition, once shrouded in secrecy, will become embraced as the next step towards graduation.
yes