To most incoming freshmen, last Tuesday’s Band Run seemed to go off without a hitch. For Ban Run veterans, the main difference with previous years was an ending point at Stanford Stadium instead of the Main Quad.

What they didn’t know was that administrators and New Student Orientation (NSO) organizers had originally planned to go forward with an alternative, unpublicized event - referred to informally by NSO volunteers as the “Stampede” - that would not have included the Band, which is on indefinite provisional status following vandalism at the Band Shak this summer. This plan was scrapped only days beforehand, when the administration decided to allow the Band to participate after all, forcing NSO into a last-minute scramble to put together Band Run.

“It was pretty frantic as far as I can tell,” said Head Orientation Volunteer Elise Menke, a senior, of the final days before the Run. “The actual execution of the program went well, but there was some frustration in not knowing whether the Band would be involved.”

Some upperclassmen who attended did not like the changes, particularly the ending, which featured traditional voice of NSO, Dean of Freshman and Transfer Students Julie Lythcott-Haims as master of ceremonies.

“It was really fun except the ending at the stadium sucked,” said senior Katherine Schlosser, who was on campus for Honors College. “They turned on the lights and then Dean Julie took the mike and introduced a bunch of people. It seemed too formal.”

The changes to the ending were all holdovers from the plan for an alternative event, Menke said. Without the Band, she said NSO staff and dorm Resident Assistants would have led freshmen out of their residences to run toward White Plaza, where students from east and west campuses would converge. Then, the entire group would run, or “stampede,” down to the stadium where they would be met with food, members of the Axe Committee, Yell Leaders and freshman football players.

“Band Run is so popular, so they were trying to create the closest thing to it if we were not allowed to do it ourselves,” said senior Adam Cohen, the Band’s assistant manager.

Nonetheless, he said the Band has been in frequent communication with Lythcott-Haims since its suspension began, and Cohen believed she had fought for the Band’s participation because “she knows that freshmen really like it.”

Lythcott-Haims could not be reached for comment before deadline.

By the time the Band received permission to host the Run, which was less than a week before orientation began, Cohen said, it was too late to organize a separate event because of the amount of logistics involved, particularly the number of security personnel needed.

With few options available, the Band co-opted the logistics already in place for the Stampede, and Cohen noted that the Band had nothing to do with the program inside the stadium.

“We didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Cohen said. “Not that we would have fought it anyway because Band Run was pretty fun this year anyway.”

“The show that was presented after Band Run was the same that was planned

for the Stampede,” Menke said.

The ending of the show resembled another Orientation event that the Athletic Department had put on in years past, Cardinal 101, where students meet the freshman players on the football field and learn the cheers used by Stanford sports fans at games.

Although some students said they felt Band Run was over-orchestrated, criticism of the ending was far from universal.

“The ending was cute; I think that was my favorite part actually,” said Katy Brewster, a freshman living in Twain. “Everyone is very rah-rah here, very into their dorm cheers. It made a lot of people want to join the Band.”

Senior Chris Williams, an Adelfa RA, agreed, and credited Lythcott-Haims and Dean of Students Greg Boardman for letting the show go on..

“It was actually the best band run I’ve been on,” he said, adding that he thought this year’s Run was better scheduled and “more official.”

Strong attendance by upperclassmen at the Run seemed to suggest that the Band’s suspension and absence from the Sept. 16 home football game against Navy had not dampened campus enthusiasm for the group. Cohen argued that the publicity that the Band has attracted in recent weeks might have added to the fervor of the “mobs of people” who turned out.