The University and student group representatives have developed plans that will improve the safety of the entire event. Students and administrators are working together with local police departments to help educate students and monitor the run. Women, especially, are being educated about the potential threats of sexual harassment and assault since, in the past, runners have been videotaped and fondled by onlookers. Also, student monitors will be strategically placed at high-traffic sites at which runners often congregate to aid police officers; these monitors will have access to two-way radios that can be used to contact Department of Public Safety officers if necessary.
Student groups have also donated money to be used to buy T-shirts that will be given to runners as they reach the center of the Diag. Organizers plan to print as many T-shirts as they can afford, hoping to make at least several hundred. While only a small swatch of clothing, it will likely improve the safety of students who would otherwise be prime targets for harassment or even assault as they conclude the Naked Mile and head home.
At this point, it is more logical and effective for the University to try to improve the safety of the Naked Mile than for the city to try to ban the event outright. This new plan is a very responsible approach, both on the part of students and the administration because it is a way of reaching out to students for their own benefit without restricting or killing the spirit of the run. This approach of the outreach will hopefully be more successful, at least in educating and communicating to everyone involved the important issues that accompany the event, than attempts of the past. The safest approach is, of course, not to run. But as long as students are going to run, it is important for the students themselves, as well as for the University administration, to have a plan of action that will help improve the safety of the