Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Alexis Johnson LESS GAS, MORE ASS | Students ran naked through the park to support Earth Month.

Last Thursday was a seemingly typical day in Washington Square Park. Parents pushed children in strollers. Students lazily lounged on benches. Tourists, maps clutched in their hands, wandered aimlessly.

And a group of naked NYU undergraduates paraded around the square.

The students, in varying stages of undress, were participating in the first annual Bare Energy Frolick at NYU. The event was organized independently of the university by students active in several environmental groups on campus. It was held as a kickoff to four weeks of eco-friendly activities at NYU in honor of Earth Month, including NYU Unplugged, the Department of Residential Educations' energy conservation challenge.

Around noon, students gathered on the east side of the park to undress and paint their bodies with slogans like "less gas, more ass!" Participants rode bikes, skateboarded and walked around the park, using any mode of transportation that was "green."

Gallatin freshman Joe Galarraga went shirtless for the event and was visibly shaking in the 50-degree weather, but he said the issue was important enough for him to be half-naked in public.

"I feel like it's my responsibility as a person living on this Earth to try and spread awareness and do what I can personally to keep it around for as long as possible," Galarraga said.

CAS sophomore Molly Anderson said she hoped that by attending the Frolick she would raise awareness about other environmental events at NYU this month. But she also wanted to take the opportunity to promote bicycling.

"I love biking and just any opportunity to show people how rad biking can be, I really just want to grab that ... anything [is] better than using gas," Anderson said.

Around noon, Gallatin freshman Keri Lyons joined up with the group of around 25 undergraduates and promptly peeled off her shirt. Soon, her torso was covered in bright, colorful paint.

"I'm here because the environment is one of the most important things to me. As much as it's a fad to go green, one person's contribution is not going to do anything," Lyons said. "You have to really work with other people to make a difference."

Lyons said she was not bothered by the nudity; for her, the nakedness was an added benefit to her activism.

"This is something I really care about and this is a great way to do it," Lyons said. "I mean, how many times do you get to be naked in the middle of Washington Square Park?"


Mary Jane Weedman is deputy etcetera editor. E-mail her at mweedman@nyunews.com.

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