Administrators are cracking down on the unsanctioned May 19 Undie Run this semester: No on-campus after-party and possible probation for students who host parties that night.

Students may now face probation under the Student Conduct Code, when they would normally be given a warning, if Chapman learns they threw a disruptive party the night of Undie Run, said Jerry Price, vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students.

“We are going out of our way to caution students that [parties] aren’t going to be tolerated that night,” he said.

Also starting this semester, students will also not be allowed to have an Undie Run after-party on campus this semester because Chapman cannot guarantee the safety of such a large gathering of students.

Last semester, a sexual assault was reported to have occurs at the after-party and contributed to why administrators chose to discontinue supporting the after-party.

“We felt like it was not an environment that was easy to ensure safety,” Price said.

The after-party has also increased student turnout when students should be studying for finals, he said.

“My preference is that students find another tradition,” Price said. “We are trying to reclaim the normalness of Wednesday night on finals week.”

Last semester, administrators supported the after-party, hosted by the student organization Action in Africa, to keep students from throwing loud parties at off-campus residences, he said. Student parties have stirred up community animosity against Chapman and culminated in Orange’s implementation of the party ordinance last year.

Price plans to e-mail the student body the week before finals to notify them that Chapman will show little leniency to students who host loud parties and disturb neighbors on a Wednesday night. Administrators are encouraging Orange Police to report students who break the so-called party ordinance.

Even though Chapman is not funding or supporting an Undie Run after-party, junior Adam Whitfield is hosting one at a secret, off-campus location.

The event’s Facebook page already has about 1,800 confirmed guests.

“After doing the event for the past two years, I have an idea of how to work the event,” Whitfield said.

He will charge $10 per person to attend the after-party and expects ticket sales to pay for all the after-party’s expenses. The location of the event will be kept a secret in order to keep non-Chapman students from attending the event.

But Chapman students don’t know where the event is either.

Students will be bused to and from Chapman to a location within 10 miles of campus, Whitfield said.

Senior Emily Schuck doesn’t think that the decision to move the after-party off campus is a good one.

“If you don’t know where the location of the after-party is, it sounds pretty sketchy,” she said.
Although Whitfield has informed Price that he is hosting the party, Price and other administrators say the party is a private event, unaffiliated with Chapman.

Chapman has always viewed the Undie Run as an unsanctioned university event, but the behavior that has incurred the neighborhood’s wrath, as well as the University’s inability to police the after-party, has led administrators to explicitly discourage participation, Price said.

There were about 3,000 partygoers last semester, a number high enough to prompt administrators to rethink the after-party for this semester, Price said.

Whether the after-party is held on or off campus, similar issues should be anticipated when students are drinking, said Sgt. Dan Adams, public information officer for Orange Police.

Most reported sexual assaults at college parties, regardless of their size, involve two students who are acquaintances, not strangers, Adams said.

“I don’t know to whose benefit it would be to have it off campus,” Adams said.

But busing students would at least limit drunk driving, he said.

Joe Pazmany, a member of Creating a Rape Free Environment and an A.S. senator, believes that moving the after-party off campus puts intoxicated students in a dangerous position.

“It doesn’t seem like the best decision,” he said. “Even if they had a great private security team, there is no way they can manage every situation.”

One good thing that came from having the after-party on campus last semester was that students couldn’t purchase more drinks, Price said.

Most of the security problems Public Safety encounters during the Undie Run are student intoxication, leading to medical attention. Also, drunk students make poor decisions, Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba wrote in an e-mail.

“We increase the number of officers on duty for the evening but our role is the same,” he wrote. “I would encourage people to use good judgment and do not do anything they are going to regret.”


Contact these reporters:daniel.langhorne@thepantheronline.com and lawrence.stevens@thepantheronline.com