Without personal responsibility, our annual tradition of Undie Run may disappear.
I can proudly say I have never missed an Undie Run in my college career. No matter how cold it was or how many finals I had on Thursday, I have arrived at 11:55 p.m. in my trusty old Speedo, ready for my favorite 45 minutes of every quarter.
I have seen the event change so much in my time here ““ from a few hundred of us randomly running down Landfair Avenue to over 5,000 Bruins running as one mob through the Strathmore Tunnel on the way to Shapiro Fountain.
I’m writing this rather than studying for finals because of my love for Undie Run and my concern that someday it may be gone. Legitimate concerns have been raised throughout our administration and student government. And we, as students, are the only ones who can save it.
The No. 1 concern for everyone involved is safety. And there are a few things we can all do to help minimize problems.
For instance, wear running shoes instead of high heels ““ yes, apparently some people wear heels to Undie Run. Stay sober enough so you can actually finish the run. Don’t damage property that costs the university tens of thousands of dollars of student fees to fix. All it takes is one big incident, one person getting seriously injured, and Undie Run is gone.
You all know this ““ it’s the way the world works. Nobody wants anyone to get hurt and nobody wants Undie Run to end.
But in order for that to happen, we need to take a little more responsibility for what is ultimately our event.
It costs the university a lot of money and time to deal with Undie Run. They have been nothing but reasonable and fair thus far in their handling of this event ““ even when we caused $20,000 of damage to our fountain.
Now it’s time for us to step up and hold up our end of the bargain. Let’s not ruin Undie Run.
So please: Be safe, be smart, be responsible. If we don’t use a little common sense, we risk losing a great UCLA tradition. And we will only have ourselves to blame.
Gabe Rose is the undergraduate student government president. He is a fourth-year political science and communication studies student.