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Mark these words: Changing the current route of the Undie Run to the administration-sanctioned, on-campus route would essentially be killing what has been a proud student tradition.

Sure, it might not seem to make that much of a difference whether you run in your skivvies on campus or off. But the undies are only half of what makes the Undie Run great.

The other half is what it symbolizes: Running down Landfair Avenue wearing just boxers and/or a bra is a defiant statement against social norms and the administrators who would rather you do something else. It’s about rebelling against the system that gave you an 8 a.m. final Thursday morning. It’s about feeling totally free for about half an hour before it’s time to lock yourself in the library again with a textbook and a cup of coffee.

The Undie Run isn’t just people running. Participants also include those who are lined up along streets and watching through windows. No other event at UCLA brings students together like this, not even Homecoming.

But if police, administrators and some members of the undergraduate student government have their way Wednesday at midnight, that won’t be the case anymore. Instead of the normal loop between Gayley and Landfair to Strathmore and Glenrock, students will be asked to run down Gayley, through De Neve Plaza and down to the Bruin Bear.

In other words, what has been a uniquely student tradition – one that has grown from just a few people to thousands – is now being bought out and subsidized by the UCLA administration.

We’re not entirely unsympathetic to some of the concerns administrators have expressed about the Undie Run in its current form. Admittedly, there is a potential for people to get hurt. After all, hundreds of college students, some of them in various states of inebriation, and all in a state of undress, are not the most safety-conscious crowd.

And there is also the issue of noise and property damage: Last year, some participants ran over parked cars. Such behavior is difficult to explain and almost impossible to excuse. And for some Westwood residents, it probably conjured up memories of the old midnight yell tradition in Westwood, when students went so far as to throw burning couches off balconies.

But these concerns could have been addressed with measures designed to deter the damage, like positioning more police along the current route and publicizing the penalties for destructive behavior through the dean of students.

We appreciate that the administration is trying to preempt possible problems, but frankly, the real purpose of the on-campus Undie Run route seems to be getting rid of the run altogether.

Past student traditions that the administration put the clamps on – the Midnight Yell, Black Sunday – were regulated to death because they consistently crossed the boundaries of public safety. The Undie Run has yet to do that. It only takes about half an hour, it only happens once a quarter, and participants are usually quick to disperse afterwards.

If, come Wednesday at midnight, the only option open to the undie-toting students who show up at the corner of Gayley and Landfair is the on-campus route, it’s almost not worth taking.

Because at that point, it’s no longer the Undie Run. It’s the Undie Run’s vague corporate cousin.