College Streaking - Part 37

 University of Virginia
Streaking the Lawn

The University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville has a streaking tradition called Streaking the Lawn.  The Lawn, seen above, is the center of the campus, designed by Thomas Jefferson, who founded the University.  Unlike other college streaking events we have seen, this one is not a scheduled mass streak.  Individual students streak all through the academic year.  It's a tradition that every student must do the streak before graduating.

The streak starts from the Rotunda, seen in the distance.  The student runs naked the length of the Lawn to the statue of Homer in the foreground, a distance of 740 feet, circles the statue three times, kisses the statue's butt, and then runs back to the Rotunda.

Most students do the streak at night, as seen in the video above.  Concealed by darkness?  Not necessarily.  Other students sometimes shine spotlights on the streakers.

Sometimes students will streak during the daytime, like the guy above in 2004.

The roots of streaking at UVA go back to 1937, though not on the Lawn.  A group of freshmen "got terribly thirsty," according to the student newspaper, and headed to the Corner, adjacent to the campus, where there are bars and restaurants.  Afterwards, "a couple of them forsook their pajamas and rushed pell-mell, Adam and Eve fashion up to their rooms."

Streaking the Lawn started in 1974, the year of the college streaking craze, but university police began arresting streakers.  This led to a hiatus of a few years, but then streaking returned and became so entrenched in UVA tradition that Streaking the Lawn is considered a de facto graduation requirement, although nobody enforces it.

Above, streakers even run in the winter when the Lawn is covered with snow.

We end with another intrepid daytime streaker.  "It'll be on YouTube," cries one of the girls watching, and sure enough, I found this video on YouTube.