Arizona State University has cut funding for a student charity event called the ASU BB “Bras and Boxers” Run (formerly known as the ASU Undie Run), which has been taking place every year at the university since 2008. This year’s event would have taken place on Friday, May 1. According to the BB Run website, students arrive to the event wearing an outfit that they plan to donate to local shelters along with canned goods, and then strip down to their underwear for a run.
It seems like harmless fun, and the event coordinators maintain a strict no drugs or alcohol policy. However, the ASU Student Government made the decision to pull funding for the event over concerns that it makes the school look cheap, writes the ASU State Press:
“Having this party paid for by the University and seeing those photos on the Internet cheapens the value of our degrees,” Tempe USG President Cassidy Possehl said at the meeting. “We cannot continue to unethically represent students for community service benefit.”
The State Press also points out that while it initially appears as though the run sexualizes students, it’s overshadowed by the fact that the event has previously collected more than 44,000 pounds of clothing which has been donated to homeless shelters. The only downside I can really see is that maybe homeless people might not want clothes from American Eagle or Abercrombie & Fitch, or wherever the hell college kids shop at these days.
Either way, it’s a shame that they couldn’t come up with a compromise that lets the students blow off steam at the end of the semester while doing good for the community. You know, if they weren’t so concerned over looking “cheap.”
Here’s a video of 2011’s Undie Run:
(Via Barstool Sports)