Students in Valentine Dining Hall at approximately 1:45 p.m. yesterday were caught off-guard when Hamilton College's Varsity Streaking team made a stop at the College as part of its five-day tour of the NESCAC schools. The team, composed of both men and women, raced in and out of the dining commons, wearing nothing but top-hats and sunglasses, blowing horns and waving a white-and-purple Hamilton College flag.

"A bunch of kids came streaking through. One of them was holding a megaphone. It was mostly guys, some girls, and they were shouting some Web site [address]," said Lisa Pistorio '07. "No one knew what was happening. It was pretty funny."

According to The Tufts Daily, the Hamilton Streaking team was founded in 2002 by a Hamilton alumnus and is unequivocally coed. During the tour, which started on Oct. 1, the Hamilton Streakers put on their show at all twelve NESCAC schools. The tour ended yesterday as the streakers returned to the Hamilton campus in Clinton, New York.

The team's motivation for streaking is not entirely clear. The team's Web site, HamiltonStreaks.com does, however, explain in broad terms the team's unconventional activities.

"Well, we were rejected from Middlebury, Williams, Bowdoin and Wesleyan. Now we cavort in the verdant quadrangles which we have been denied," the team's Web site reads. "We mean no disrespect; we wish only to illuminate, to dazzle, to amuse and astonish. And, of course, streaking is wicked fun."

The Web site also claims that "the team is comprised of individuals who wish to make the Northeast United States a safer and more accepting place for humanity. [It] is dedicated to spreading love for and awareness of the body, [and] to enlighten and enliven unsuspecting spectators."

"It was shocking to hear a group of [young people] yelling and running into Valentine while people were busing their trays. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of the streak was, but the Hamilton students got attention," said Rosalyn Foster '05, who saw the streakers in Valentine.

"This happens every year although it mostly happens outside," said Scott Shippey, the evening service leader at Valentine. "We haven't had inside streakers in more than four years. It's been awhile."

None of the NESCAC schools took disciplinary action against the streakers during their tour.

According to the Web site, the team encourages interested individuals to register for the team's next event, the Fall Invitational. The Web site features photographs of past streaking endeavors. Also featured is a list of streaking essentials, according to the Hamilton Streaking team: the industrial airhorn, the emergency whistle and the college banner.