Last weekend's display of exhibitionism at the Griz-Cal Poly football game was not the first time a University of Montana student has dropped his trousers on campus.
Even aside from last Wednesday's inaugural "Undie Run," where hundreds of UM students stripped down to their knickers in the name of goodwill, there have been numerous instances of students baring all.
Such was the case in 2001, when a half-dozen students streaked across the Oval as part of "The Streak for the Creek," a campaign to raise awareness about a proposed mine in Rock Creek.
Dean of Students Charles Couture recalls another time when UM Public Safety came across a naked male student walking along Campus Drive. Then there was the "epidemic of stripping and streaking" in the 1970s, as chronicled by the late Missoulian reporter Evelyn King in a 1999 column. "When the fad reached Missoula, an occasional streaker was seen loping across the university Oval or one of the river bridges."
Following Daniel Thew's birthday-suit dance on the 7-yard-line of Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Sept. 10, UM administrators were quick to say the sophomore would likely be expelled or suspended. Yet, in some of the earlier instances, students faced no consequences from either police or the university. No one was suspended or expelled.
Then, too, there have been several recent incidents involving other types of student misconduct - athletes facing drunken driving charges, as well as an accidental shooting on the first day of classes. And those are only the cases that made headlines.
Taken as a whole, the incidents left many folks on and off campus asking: How is UM's student conduct code applied? How does the university learn of student infractions? And how are sanctions meted out?
"We want students to learn from their mistakes," Couture said.
The university student conduct code is not meant as a penal system, he said. That's what the judicial process is for. Rather, the university conduct code aims to educate students and help them mature as adults.
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University student conduct codes vary from school to school nationwide - shaped by whether the institution is a state or religious college, the campus history, its institutional culture and the makeup of the student body.
Some of the strictest sanctions in the country are in place at the University of Virginia, said Daniel Swinton, president of the Association of Student Conduct Administration. A number of violations at UVA result in automatic expulsion, "which tends to be a bit of a blunt instrument," Swinton said. Often, students withdraw from school before that happens.
At the University of Montana, expulsion usually occurs if a student faces violent physical or sexual assault charges, rape charges, certain firearms violations and repeated misbehavior involving lesser offenses.
Over the past decade, the No. 1 UM student infraction has been violation of the campus alcohol policy, with Couture recording 468 violations. Most of those cited are freshmen and sophomores and are out-of-state students.
UM also has seen a rapid increase in the past two years of illegal downloading and file sharing, the dean said.
During the last academic year, there were 26 violations of the alcohol policy, 26 marijuana violations and 98 violations of illegally downloading or file-sharing using university wireless connections.
That's primarily because of concentrated efforts by the Recording Industry Association of America to stop what the organization believes are its biggest copyright violators: college students. The association will contact UM's information technology department, which will then track the IP address to a student.
That's also resulted in a significant increase in student misconduct referrals by UM staff.
Most of the time, though, the university learns about student misbehavior from UM public safety officers, either because the incident occurs on campus or through collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, Couture said.
There are two kinds of misconduct for which students can find themselves in trouble: academic and behavioral. Cheating on a test or plagiarizing off the Internet is an offense dealt with by academic departments.
All other infractions go through the Office of the Dean of Students.
This summer, several UM football players were arrested on drunken-driving charges - both in Missoula and outside Montana.
Drinking violations off campus don't rise to the level of punishment under the UM student conduct code, Couture said. In fact, only in instances where student misconduct off campus may pose a threat to campus safety will the university get involved. And in those cases, presidential approval is required first.
Athletes, however, are held to a higher standard and must obey an additional layer of rules outlined by UM in the Student-Athlete Conduct Code.
"They're supposed to be role models for the university," Couture said.
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There is significant leeway when determining consequences for students found in violation of the student code of conduct. Sometimes Couture has students write reflection papers - research papers on how their misconduct affected UM - or evicts students from a dorm or restricts their access to campus.
"It's important to apply the appropriate sanction to the level of the misconduct," Couture said.
Michael Ream, the third-year UM student who accidentally shot a friend in the hand in a campus parking lot on the first day of school, was reprimanded by the university. While the owner of the gun was not a student, Ream was placed on disciplinary probation for the remainder of the academic year, which means he cannot get into any trouble, and is not allowed in campus residence halls - and cannot bring a firearm or weapon to campus for the remainder of his college career.
The day after the incident, Ream visited UM Public Safety to apologize to director Gary Taylor.
Ream thinks the university treated him fairly, and he's thankful he wasn't kicked out of school.
Running nude across campus does not violate the UM student code of conduct, Couture said. What makes streaking offensive is the timing, audience, reason for doing so and whether the act disrupts campus activity.
"If he had not been drunk, then he would have made better decisions," Couture said, referring to Thew's nudity stunt before 25,000 Griz fans at last weekend's football game. Thew was cited for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and minor in possession of alcohol in Missoula Municipal Court.
The UM sophomore from Milwaukee then created a Facebook page called "Dan the Streaking Man," which after several days attracted 1,014 fans.
Friends were promoting orders for "Dan the Man" trucker hats with a photo of Thew wearing nothing but a cheerleader megaphone. All proceeds were going to Thew. "Help a streaker out," his friends wrote.
"He's certainly not helping his case by playing it out in the media," Couture said. "He's having a grand time. I think he should start thinking more like an adult."
On Wednesday, Thew took down the Facebook page. The university has not yet decided what sanctions he will face.
"This page will be deleted today when I get home from school," wrote Thew on Wednesday. "It was a fun ride, but if you really care about me not getting expelled then let this be a memory and not that (sic) talk of the town. I think the university will see it as no big deal if people drop the subject and move on."
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at
[email protected].
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