The Supreme Minority

Just when a good thing going becomes something of a tradition, there always seems to be somebody or a group of somebodies who go and ruin the whole thing for everyone. Think about it: you're in high school, hanging out at LaSalle Park, drinking a few cold ones and talking some trash when some loonies decide the campfire isn't big enough so they pile on huge logs and pieces of somebody's fence. Of course, the cops get a call, and the next thing you know, you're all sprinting away knowing that now you'd need some other place to hang out. I could give you a dozen other examples, but you get the idea. So do the students at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Tufts, established by some guy named, well, Tufts, back in 1852 has a long history of being the 'light on the hill" among other things. There are approximately 9200 students attending who will pay something close to $41,000 this year in tuition, excluding fees. As a result, they probably feel a LOT of pressure to study hard, do extra credit and generally prove that expenditure worthwhile. So, you can imagine that when the semester comes to an end, there is a decided need to release some pent-up anxiety...and they have done so annually since the 1970s with something called the Naked Quad Run (I'm sure no other details are necessary).
All of that is coming to an end, according to President Lawrence Bacow who called this year's event a "carnage" and vowed that the students had run their last. According to the president, the run was too dangerous due to "excessive alcohol consumption, slippery sidewalks and dangerously low temperatures." These were probably the major factors in doing the run in the first place, but then...
Following this year's run, two students were hospitalized with very high blood alcohol content issues. Imagine making THAT phone call to Mom or Dad paying the $41k!
According to one student," A drunken few ruined it for the majority."
So, it's not just in politics where that happens, it would seem.
Or at surreptitious high school parties.
But it ALWAYS happens.