Editor's note: This article is the second in a two-part series on streaking.
The stress of final exams, papers and presentations weighs down upon most students, who respond in different ways. Some watch television, while some go to the gym. Some buy extra coffee, while others get naked.
At various, mostly larger schools, streaking and public nudity are often well-coordinated, organized events, often occurring around the time of final exams.
These naked occasions can involve large crowds of students. Tufts University students have their "Naked Quad Run" after the last day of classes in the first semester, for instance.
At Harvard University, the day before finals is time for "Primal Scream," a naked, loud run around Harvard Yard at midnight. At the University of Vermont on the last day of classes, there is a midnight naked bike ride around campus.
For the students who participate in these activities, these traditions are a chance for the school to come together.
"[The Naked Quad Run] is a really big Tufts tradition -- everyone kind of bands together and does it," said Stacy Davidowitz, a Tufts senior who has participated in the run three times.
"Tufts doesn't have a lot of sports teams that people support, and people sort of do their own thing. Everyone takes part in it, and you're either running or watching," she said. "The Naked Quad Run really ties the school together."
The Tufts administration even sponsors the run.
The sentiment of togetherness in nudity was echoed by Mike Korn, a UVM junior who took part in his school's naked bike ride.
"People like to relax before finals, and it gives people a chance to have a little fun, and see something you don't see everyday," Korn said. "You go up, and you hang out with everyone on campus."
At Harvard's "Primal Scream," runners are usually surrounded by spectators, who watch and cheer. But even when naked events are not campus-wide, they are often meant to be entertainment.
Brown University senior Lillian Ostrach has both participated in and organized the naked doughnut run, an event where a group of students who wear pants sizes 15 to 45, deliver doughnuts in the buff to students working in the library during finals period.
For Ostrach, the run is "not an exhibitionist thing at all. "We spend so much of our time being serious, it's an event to reward people who are studying."
She said that the event draws participants from varied backgrounds.
"People of all shapes and sizes do it," Ostrach said.
At smaller schools, organized naked events are far less prevalent. Instead, it seems that random streaking in small groups, and at varied times of the year is much more common.
Hannah Marqusee, a Wesleyan University freshman, attended an underwear party in the beginning of this year, an event that generally happens each semester.
Marqusee described the party as "super awkward. Everyone was drunk and just standing around."
She said that the same awkwardness pervaded a "nearly naked party" at one of Wesleyan's fraternities.
Most of the streaking at Wesleyan, according to Marquesee, was done by close-knit groups of people, often sports teams -- in particular track athletes and members of the men's soccer team.
Sabrina Dorman, an Amherst College sophomore, noticed a similar pattern of streaking at Amherst, noting that the only streaking she saw was usually team oriented, at sports team parties or various groups of "crazy drunkards."
Dorman also pointed out that streakers are received well at Amherst, in part owing to the school's small size.
"Everybody's really comfortable with everyone else, no one really judges you on first appearance, because they know you from other friends, stuff like that," she said.
This familiarity, according to Dorman, allows people to streak, without fear that streaking alone could determine someone's reputation at Amherst.
Yet despite the differences, streakers at several schools share one key reason for why people streak, regardless of whether it's in a small group of friends or a crush of hundreds.
Each person interviewed for this article made a point of saying that for themselves, or for others they streaked with, streaking is just something that they felt they had to do, once, before they graduated college.
Back in Hanover, Jon Kling '04 offered a series of tips for the Dartmouth student who attempts to complete the Ledyard Challenge, an event where students swim across the Connecticut river and then run back -- all naked, all while avoiding the authorities.
There's a risk, however. Kling warns that those who try to hid in the bushes on either side of the river to beware of poison ivy. And contrary to popularly held belief, Kling said, public nudity is illegal in both New Hampshire and Vermont, not just New Hampshire.
