Despite a ban on the final's week celebration that is UCLA's Undie Run, over 1,500 students are already signed up on Facebook for next Wednesday's event. And it seems UCLA officials aren't going to stop it from happening, save for having campus police crack down on violations such as jay walking, which happened when a few hundred students gathered last December for an unofficial run. more ›

For UCLA students, the quarterly Undie Run wasn't just an opportunity to frolic on campus late at night in their skivvies (and be snapped in pics that quickly made their way to teh internets) but the "unofficial campus tradition" was "a way of relieving stress during finals week," according to the UCLA Newsroom. It's pretty self-explanatory, but for the uninitiated: Students run "through campus, many in their underwear, in the middle of the night at the end of the fall, winter and spring academic quarters." more ›

Oh, to be young and inclined to run around a campus at night in your underwear... The longing was put into action on the UC Irvine campus last week, as about 150 co-eds stripped down and sprinted out under the relative cover of night. "It's not illegal to run around in your underwear, as long as all the appropriate parts are covered," remarks the OC Register in their story on the run. They also note that the event is pretty huge here in Los Angeles, something UCLA students know very, very, very, very well. The UCI campus police hung back and watched, and made sure the students didn't run into the nearby shopping center--in case they ran into Irvine cops. Sure, it was cold, and sure, strangers were watching, but the bottom line was pretty straightforward, according to one student: "It felt really good to be free from all that stress, from finals and some issues at the dorm." more ›

Although the Undie Run has been around since 2002 (in lieu of the Midnight Yell), major media outlets really didn't start to catch on until a few years ago. Last night, ESPN, NBC, FOX News and four LA Times staffers (Adam Rose produced a great video for them) were seen at the event. LAist has covered the event since 2006 so here is some of last night mixed up with the best of since '06: more ›

Ways for the student body at UCLA to relieve stress during finals week might get harder this year. The university's administration may not let the UCLA Undie go on at the end of each quarter, citing high costs for security and damages and concern that many who run are from other colleges including USC. From a Daily Bruin editorial: more ›

On Saturday, around 1000 people took park in the first annual Underwear Affair for City of Hope to raise money and awareness for those below-the-waist cancers (prostate, colorectal, cervical, ovarian, kidney, bladder, testicular and uterine) that do not always get the attention they should. more ›

The Undie Run at UCLA has a cause that is, "hey, school's out, let's get crazy!" The Underwear Affair this upcoming Saturday has a more worthy cause: raising money for prostate, colorectal, cervical, ovarian, kidney, bladder, testicular and uterine cancers. more ›

The event was so wild that LAist photographer Tom Andrews' camera came to near death in a water balloon fight (everything is okay now!), people were swinging from trees, the police put on their tactical/riot gear and there was a much more variety of happenings going on this time around. UCLA student Ryan D. Knight also helped out by contributing many of the wonderful crowd shots. And with that, finally, here's your Undie Run. See you next December. more ›

Even Current TV caught the UCLA Undie Run bug a couple years ago. If you missed this last quarters action, here's the photo gallery. more ›

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level of talk going on in the comments: more ›

At UCLA, spring break officially begins today after exams, but as tradition states, on the Wednesday of finals week, students must undress and run like there's no tomorrow (it's rumored that former President Bill Clinton will join in on the next Undie Run before he addresses graduates at the main commencement ceremony in June). As usual, here's some of the craziness that took place, beginning at the Strathmore tunnel... more ›

Photo by Ryan Jesena in his Photo Essay of Burning Man 2007 more ›

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

More photos from last night's Undie Run here. Strathmore Tunnel Photos by Contributing Writer Henry David. Photos in the thick of it by Sports Editor Adam Rose and LAist Editor Zach Behrens.... more ›

LAist has been sending undercover reporters to UCLA's undie run for the past few quarters and trust us, there's no better place to be embedded than in a throng of thongs. Try as they might to duplicate our coverage (we're looking at you, KTLA ... and the creepy dude with a camera lens that was a lil' too long, if you know what we mean), nobody can uncover a story like we can. Thanks... more ›

What with all the Big Game festivities going on this weekend, a girl can't help but think back fondly upon her alma mater. But you know what? It's only been a few years since I left UCLA, and I gotta say -- I almost don't recognize the place anymore. Has it really been so long since I graduated? Five years? Maybe more? So much has changed -- I came of age in the Steve... more ›

I'm thankful for so much this Thanksgiving that I don't even know where to begin, so let's start with the basics: I'm thankful of you, my family, my friends, loose women, cheap vices, Guitar Hero, and the Good Lord. I'm thankful for something that you probably don't have, the greatest bosses alive and the coolest gig. For example can you say fuck to tens of thousands of people today? Fuck. I'm thankful to live... more ›

For the second year in a row UC Santa Barbara was ranked the 10th Best Party School by the Princeton Review. In their newly released 2008 edition of The Best 366 Colleges, the university 90 minutes north of LA was the only California school to make the Top 10. The top ranked party school this year was West Virginia University, a school that has made the list seven times in the past 15 years.... more ›

Earlier this month UCLA held their infamous Undie Run which has been completely covered by serveral indepth LAist photo essays (and out of fairness we even covered the USC Fountain Run). This last Undie Run was bigger and even more successful, so therefore thanks to UCLA student and photographer Eric Kim, we are able to give you the biggest Undie Run photo essay ever. Because of the nature of the content - scantily clad... more ›

USAC Elections more ›

Due to popular demand after LAist's appearance on Rogan and Simers Squared, we present some additional coverage of the UCLA women's gymnastics team from this weekend's NCAA Championships. The Bruins finished fourth in the nation, thank in part to a strong performance by Tasha Schwikert (left) who came in second on the uneven bars. She completed a Shaposhnikova to shootover half to handstand, Tkatchev, perfect handstands and a stuck double layout dismount. Lost yet? We're... more ›

So, last night was USC's Fountain "Run", the ancient ritual signifying that finals are over and that seniors are officially done with school. I went into it thinking it'd be like UCLA's Undie Run, which from the looks of LAist's crack coverage several weeks ago, ranks up there on the debauch-o-meter with a transatlantic flight on Joe Francis' private jet. But this is USC. Things here are a bit tamer, right? Right? Despite the... more ›

Dodgers 5, Diamondbacks 1 - Off to the best record in baseball, Los Angeles scored in five different innings to earn their ninth win. Brad Penny allowed one run in seven innings to record his third win of the young season. Nomar Garciaparra had a home run and double to earn his two RBIs. Luis Gonzalez was 0-4 in his return to Arizona. more ›

You thought you had seen it all. You thought we weren't going to bring you anything more shocking than last week's UCLA Undie Run Photo Essay and Bonus Essay. Oh boy were you wrong. This town thrives on sequels, so we're delivering one of our own. Last time we brought you bras, panties, and not much else. This time we've got people in ninja turtle and banana costumes, walking their dog, hanging upside down on... more ›

Photo © / Pesky Humans Spring? Sprung. Witness the debauchery that is Undie Run 2007 after the jump. ©... more ›

We've never been bigger Bruins fans during March Madness, and we're not talking about basketball. Hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of coeds stripped down for the traditional UCLA Undie Run. This edition had a slightly modified course that kept the run on campus, starting in front of the fraternities and ending in a fountain by Royce Hall. LAist was on the scene to provide complete coverage of the uncoverage. In this post you'll find... more ›

- Does UCLA really want us to believe that they have to pay cops overtime to provide security for the Undie Runs? On-duty LAPD wouldn't find it in their hearts to just happen to mosey over to Westwood a few times a year for a few hours to protect co-eds in unmentionables? - Daily Bruin - Free, online, ad-supported version of Photoshop coming this fall - TechCrunch - Bad news: New Angel outfielder Garry... more ›

Danger 1, Staples Center 0 - NBC 4 is reporting that the Staples Center may not be safe in case of fire or other emergency. In 2000, the a City Council investigation found that "their fire systems are not opperating." Six years later, there still hasn't been a full test. A ten minute video can be found here. Bulls 94, Lakers 89 - Despite being up by 11 in the third quarter, the Lakers... more ›

- Our good friends at Gawker seem to have some unwelcome guests - Wired more ›

A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes in photo journalism that is more words than you need. A second post of pictures covering the Undie Run? Sure, why not. More photos after the jump.... more ›