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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 1974)
m COU thursday, march 7, 1974 lincoln, nebraska vol. 97, no. 29 V LJ -Li SI reakers strip campus of springiime solitude By Vince Boucher, Bill Freudcnburg and Jane Owens "She's gonna have a helluva cold tomorrow." If she has a helluva cold, so will most of an estimated 500 to 2,000 UNL students who alternately cried with ectasy, yelped with delight and demanded "More chicks" late Tuesday night. Clad in hair rollers, overcoats and terrycloth bath robes, students flowed out of Greek houses and residence halls onto 16th Street as the first UNL streakers struck. Following national trends, UNL students doffed their garments and participated in a series of streaks. At about 9:45 p.m. 18 students from the Chi Phi fraternity house, bared their bottoms end pranced together in the unobstructed view of nearby sororities. (Prodded by the UNL streaking, students ct Nebraska Wesleyan University followed suit Tuesday night. And 50 University of Missouri students marched down Broadway Street in downtown Columbia Tuesday, clad only in tennis shoes and pit helmets.) Chi Phi fraternity members reported that women from the Alpha Delta Pi sorority house telephoned them and said, "Do it again!" And it was done again. And again. Then streakers appeared, running on pavements and yards near 16th and R Streets, with a crowd of enthusiastic students in avid pursuit. Both Greek and independent students were among the streakers. The throng moved to the Nebraska Union, to the Administration Bldg., to the Broyhill Fountain and finally along 16th Street, as groups of streakers kept appearing until about 3 a.m. Wednesday. Two UNL students were apprehended by Lincoln Police Dept officers ami charged Wednesday with disturbing the peace. They are sophomore John Dixon and freshman Patricia McConnell. Both pleaded innocent Wednesday in Municipal Court and bond was set at $100 each. For Campus Security and Lincoln poSice officers, the streak must have- bmn m exercise in frustration. They pursued several ttrsattrs as the throng good-naturedly fc;sd them?"" """".. - "Everyone else was doing it and we wanted to be the best," said one male streaker identified as Mr. O. "We sat up nights planning it." Mr. O said he was disappointed that more women didn't streak. "At North Carolina there were 280, and 80 of 'em were chicks. That was really cool." One UNL woman student who did streak gave a clue as to why there were fewer women streakers. "Gawd, it hurt your boobs," she said. Another woman streaker commented that the streak was really fun. "It was something that I'll never forget," she said. Reflecting on his successful streak, another student said, "After five minutes there was nothing to it. "I thought it was great A lot of people who don't know each other wore talking to each other. pasJioc c 0t rotting I i a I p I I I ... i .$"!: - mmi - P. tept -- ------- t i Everybody's just so friendly people are goin' nuts," he said. Mr. O added, "We wanted to get people involved and excited." Excited they were. Crowd response included everything from squeals of delight to disdainful remarks about the maturity of the streakers: -"It's educational. Boy is it educational." "Once you've seen one of them, you've seen them all." -"On TV I thought it was kind of funny, but when they're people you know its kind of disgusting. I guess it's like going to The Exorcist and knowing your gonna get sick." -"I wish my boyfriend looked like that." -"Too bad the Masters didn't see it." I think it shows how bored we are." "It's a conservative school. Not everyone's gonna welcome the idea of running around naked. Phi Delts.yes." -"We wanna woman's auxilary group." -"I wanna have a date with him. He has a nice ass. As streaking spread from fraternity house to fraternity house along 18th Street, the spirit and numbers of the crowd rose. Seeing 2,000 fellow students gathered in the moonlight watching the absurdities created a bouyant feeling that was noted by several students. , "I've seen people tonight I haven't seen all semester," one student remarked. "It gives the campus a spirit that it hasn't had since the snowball fight four years ago," another said. One exuberant student smiled, laughed and said, "I'm a senior this year, and I haven't ever seen anything like it. This must have been what it was like during the war protests." , ( '"' Police officers approached by repofiers usually refused to corftmznt bft tf.3 specter,?. " " One UNL campus security officer, who arrived midway through the streak, said, "I never got in on it I wasn't pursuing in earnest Just watching...just watching." , UNL Campus Security officer Lt. Robert Edmunds commented Wednesday after the streak, "We had a feeling it was coming." Me estimated that there were 40 streakers at Tuesday's streak. John J. Stephens, assistant to the chancellor, said Wednesday that no decision had been made on whether any punitive action would be taken against the streakers. At one point, a male streaker, standing nude with four fallow streakers on the Nebraska Union south steps exhorted the crowd, "Look around you. There are more than 300 of you. Drop your clothes!" Loud cheers echoed after his last remark, but the crowd did not comply with his request. Hopes for future streaks are still high. Mr. O. and other bystanders revealed tentative plans for bigger and better streaks. "It's a preview to Greek Week," one student observed. As the streakers thinned out, persons in the crowd looked around and began to think again of 8:30 a.m. classes and their own warm beds, out of the chilly night wind. . ."Cheap thrill's over," one woman said. Her friend lingering nearby said simply, "That about covers it." A streaker strips as an enthusiastic crowd cheers him on. UNL flashes new streaking policy UNL administrative officials released a statement Wednesday afternoon after streaking (running in the nude) occurred Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. Ken Bader, vice chancellor for student affairs said, "I smile at it (streaking) but, as responsible public citizens, we have a law we can't ignore." The statement read: 1. Any student who is apprehended for streaking will be subject to existing city andor state statutes. 2. The University disciplinary code and judicial system will be involved in streaking cases when the accused student has adversely affected "some distinct and clear interest of the University as an academic community." When streaking either disrupts the orderly course of the academic community, results in damage to property andor injury to individuals, the accused student will have violated a University regulation and as such will be subject to University disciplinary action. 3. The Lincoln police retain full authority and jurisdiction . to investigate reported incidents of streaking on University property and adjacent areas. 4, Campus Security either in assisting Lincoln police, or in investigating streaking incidents on its control, take photographs that will be used in follow-up Investigation and make arrests, when appropriate. All students should keep in mind that arrest by law enforcement officials requires that they be taken to the Lincoln Police Dept. for appropriate action. Streaking resolution submitted In the light of current student activities, ASUN Son. Todd Patterson introduced a resolution to the ASUN Senate Wednesday night requesting that the senate recognize the week of March 18-24 as "Streakers Week." Another resolution, submitted, but not introduced, by ASUN Sen. George Rhodes, asked that "since streaking has become a national form of student self-expression, be it resolved that ASUN encourage the UNL administration and Campus Security to refrain from taking any punitive action against peaceful nonviolent streakers." Patterson's- resolution, since it was net introduced in time to be placed on the agenda, wiH be voted on next WfiSfe. In' other action, tbs ASUN Senate voted to transfer $500 from the Afro-American Collegiate Society's (AACS) budget to the Minority Affairs Black Ethnic Cultural Program. Leanette Merrell and Garinstta Hegwood, members of the AACS's board, made the request to the senate. Most probably, Merrell said, the money will be used in support of a tentatively-planned spring concert, featuring Kc4S and the Gang. In order to reduce its debt on the now defunct ASUN record store, the senate voted that the balance of its general account, $2,200, and $500 from its student organisations account, be allocated to pay off some of the $8,700 remalniivj on the bill.
