Streakers disbanded following complaints

The varsity streaking team was disbanded late last month after University officials threatened members with disciplinary action, according to a team co-founder.

The action was in response to an April 8 streak down Prospect Avenue. Team co-captains Scott Welfel '06 and Danny Brome '05 received emails early the next week from Investigator Charles Peters of Public Safety, Welfel said. Peters was assigned to the investigation by the Princeton Borough police, he added.

"We suspected that he was calling us in because our names had been in many newspapers as the founders of the team, and he assumed we would have either been involved or would have known who was involved," Welfel said.

Peters told him that there would be no punishment for the streakers if the team promised to never streak again, Welfel said.

"Investigator Peters told us the Borough was pretty pissed and had hired a detective to investigate the incident. He wanted to be able to give the Borough assurance that we would promise to discontinue our streaking, which we were compelled to do," Welfel said.

Welfel said he was told the streak was reported to the police by foreign dignitaries who were in Robertson Hall at the time, a claim disputed by Borough police.

Borough Police Lt. Dennis McManimon said, "There seems to have been some kind of function that day with school officials but not with foreign dignitaries ... I don't know why people said that."

Though University officials declined to comment on the April 8 incident, their policy on streaking is separate from the Borough and is not high on their list of concerns, according to Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Hilary Herbold.

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"What I can say is that regardless of dignitaries, we are not going to change the disciplinary response on who was there to witness [the event]," Herbold said. "Were specific students identified and were [it] to be acknowledged that they had been in state of undress, then we would place them on probation."

The University will not go out of its way to search for the streakers if no reports are made to Public Safety and no students are identified, she said.

"We basically rely on Public Safety to apprehend the students. If they don't, we won't actively pursue it," Herbold said.

A new sport

The streaking team, a group of roughly 30 students whose competitions consist of seeing how big of a group they can get to go unclothed in public areas, gained attention for streaking an abnormal psychology lecture in December.

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Wearing nothing but shoes, wool hats and belts, the students slowly walked down the stairs, handed the professor a note, then walked back up the stairs.

"We regretfully apologize that we will be unable to streak your lecture today," the note read. "Due to inclement weather we were not able to get sufficient numbers to field a full team. We had hoped to streak for the cause of legalizing streaking. Apologetically, the Princeton University Varsity Streaking Team."

Welfel said the group is "an opportunity for people who normally feel constricted by the rules of society to break free and show their true selves."

A friendly competition

Though the Princeton team will not streak at the University again, Welfel said he still hopes to compete at Hamilton. In early April, 20 members of the Hamilton College Varsity Streaking Team streaked across Princeton.

Welfel called the event "a shock-and-awe campaign," saying, "They completely rocked our world. Our team was put to shame."