The arrival of February signals yet another wild and wacky annual Stanford tradition: Tree Week. After the Dollie selection, the LSJUMB turns its attention toward picking the Stanford student who will become the Cardinal’s unofficial mascot for an entire year. What may come as a troubling surprise to outsiders, however, is the unusual audition process for becoming the Stanford Tree.

“The fact of the matter is that Trees love Stanford more than they respect their bodies,” said then-senior Dan Bentley, a Band press representative, in a 2004 Daily article on Tree Week [“Students Try Out to be Tree”]. “The sign of a true Tree is the ability to commit sin against self . . . and physics.” This doctrine of physical sacrifice has been manifested over the years in eye-popping skydiving expeditions, self-amputations in White Plaza and other stunts too varied to catalogue here. The Tree selection process, however, has come under new scrutiny in light of this Tuesday’s bloody Tree stunt in White Plaza, and we think Tree Week is ripe for re-examination.

Jack Cackler ‘09 was struck by nine friends with long fluorescent light bulbs and achieved instant notoriety on campus with the publication of a picture showing his blood-smeared chest on the front of Wednesday’s Daily. Generally, in the world of Tree Week, exposure is always a good thing and presumably makes Cackler the front-runner for the upcoming selection. Current Tree John Whipple ‘10 was quoted in The Daily on Wednesday as encouraging “not only gutsy, painful things, but also creative” stunts in light of the incident — this from a Tree who received a dry-ice branding in White Plaza during his candidacy.

Proponents of this hair-raising selection process say it weeds out all but the most serious, dedicated candidates. If the Tree’s role, however, were to leap through hoops of fire or swallow live animals during halftime shows in Maples, perhaps Tree Week would make more immediate sense. But as things stand, the Tree’s job is to create enthusiasm at sporting events, and to dance during stoppages in play. Given the erratic record of recent Trees on these two fronts, it seems wise to introduce a practical element into the selection process.

What if, instead of a series of dangerous stunts, rumored backroom deals and the bribing of Dollies — all elements that characterize the darker side of Tree Week — our mascot selection had more to do with the skills candidates perform upon being selected? Whipple’s suggestions for more creativity and ingenuity are a step in the right direction. The band should highly encourage Tree Week to evolve into a tradition encompassing both creative demonstrations of school spirit and a showcase of the performance abilities a candidate will bring to the job for which he or she is actually auditioning.

Ultimately, the wildness of Tree Week is a recipe for trouble. Imagine the uproar if something went tremendously wrong during a stunt, this week or in the future? Although candidates are free to do whatever they please and are responsible for their own safety during stunts, a tragedy during Tree Week would reflect extremely poorly on the LSJUMB and the University as a whole.

With the news that the band has decided to remove Cackler from the running for Tree, some may consider the problem solved. But this may be a case of blaming the victim: the ambiguous expectations for the Tree Week campaign are only encouraging this type of behavior. Some fundamental change in the nature of the contest — not merely disqualifying a candidate who crosses a very fuzzy line — is the key to fixing Tree Week.

Certainly there will be some who resist any type of change in the Tree selection process and assert the LSJUMB’s right to be as wacky as possible. But the gory display in White Plaza this week seems less and less relevant to being Tree and more and more relevant to making a scene — at any cost.