Photo Gallery: Students drop trou for Undie Run

Ryan Ugale has two papers due Friday. To prepare, he donned a half-buttoned onesie and took off running.

Ugale, a sophomore biology major, is one of more than 1,000 students who shed their clothes for Undie Run Wednesday night. Students braved mid-40s weather as they ran the streets of Orange to relieve stress and celebrate the end of the semester.

"It's pretty cool. It's good stress relief in the middle of finals week," Ugale said.

The semiannual Undie Run traditionally takes place at midnight on Wednesday of finals week each semester. Students meet in the Piazza before midnight. When the clock turns, they run toward the Orange Plaza.

What started as a handful of students stripping down to donate their clothes to charity now draws students from local universities, community colleges and even high schools.

"It's local, and I have friends that go to Chapman," said Dylan Fitzgerald, a sophomore business management major at Cypress College. "My finals get out at the same time as Chapman's so it's kind of a reliever for me, too."

Hundreds of Orange residents posted camp along Glassell Street to watch students run in their skivvies. The street was blocked off by Orange Police Department from Sycamore Avenue to the Orange Plaza. Thirty officers teamed up with Public Safety to patrol the event.

"We always have significant police presence ever since the fountain was damaged," said Sgt. Dan Adams of OPD. "We know the game plan now."

Fences were erected to protect areas of campus perceived as vulnerable, including the C.C. Chapman statue and fountain in the Piazza, said Jerry Price, vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students. The Student Union, which is normally open at the time Undie Run begins, was also prepared for the occasion.

"It's there for students to gather and get warm," Price said. "However, we don't want it to be a party environment."

Retired art professor Richard Turner showed up to the Piazza to witness his first Undie Run.

"I worked here for 40 years and never saw one," Turner said. "It's weird. I didn't know what to expect."

Turner was one in a crowd of Orange residents who lined the sidewalks to watch the run. The audience mades Becca Gardner, a senior film production major, feel uncomfortable.

"That's what rubs me the wrong way the most, the creepy old people and the old men standing at the bars and cat-calling everyone," Gardner said. "I can run around in my underwear in my room and not have creeps watching me."

Gardner didn't run this year because she is no longer attracted by the novelty of the event.

"I felt really different about the Undie Run when I was a freshman," Gardner said. "It's fun to do it once to see what it's about, but it's not something you need to do every year."