Undies in Olin, a longstanding tradition to Keep Wes Weird, was on Wesfest Friday around noon. This is what happened, according to Dasha Dubinsky ’18:
The crowd of people that showed up had been standing around for a while, and getting a bit anxious, when the first tour group walked through at about 12:30. While most of the prefrosh and parents seemed confused and unsure of themselves as they avoided eye contact, certain members of the tour group seemed happy with the turn of events. Multiple people reminded everyone that this is in fact a library with screams of “I’m trying to work in here” and much shushing.
Not long after the first tour group walked by, two more also went through with similar reactions. Most memorable was one prefrosh and her mom running through the hall to avoid looking at all the half-naked college students.
After all three of the tour groups left, everyone cheered and erupted into the Wesleyan Fight Song. It was one of the most Wesleyan moments I’ve experienced here and the bond that I felt with everyone else in the library that day was amazing.
WHOO WESLEYAN CLOTHING OPTIONAL!!!!11 Below are some photos of the event that I photoshopped “skillfully” to protect privacy. And just to maintain some institutional memory, here is a quote from an anonymous Undies in Olin organizer from a few years ago, about the inspiration, history, and existential meaning behind the event:
Undies in Olin has been a longstanding tradition of much controversy and has lead to many a heated discussion. The event embodies topics ranging from gender roles to sexuality in Western society, but the big questions raised by the event are ‘What is our place in this world?’ Why are we here?’ These loftier questions were greatly the source of my inspiration in planning the event. I felt that letting this tradition die would amount to watching passively as culture slowly deteriorated in our modern world. Also, I like to see some skin every once in a while, you know? Like, there are some really sexy people at this school. And sexy in more ways than one. To me that’s what makes Wesleyan a great school. Fuck keeping Wes weird. As long as we keep it sexy, it’s peaches to me.
