First Rain is an annual event held at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) which began at Porter College. It is also known as the Naked Run or Porter Run. During the first rainfall of the school year, students run naked through the campus, generally starting at Porter College.
First Rain started in fall of 1989, following the weeks of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Students, afraid to sleep inside the Porter College dorms, would sleep outside in the quad. Upon developing an outside lifestyle of playing small games like Simon Says, students dared each other to strip and run around campus naked. Historically, First Rain runs had prerequisites to be met before beginning: The run would only form on a school night, and rain had to fall nonstop for the entire day. At 10:00 pm, the run would begin in Porter. By the late 1990s,the rules became simplified: as soon as the heavy rains of the year fell, students were to disrobe and run. Over the past several years, First Rain's prerequisite formation rules have continued to be relaxed, as nonstop rain would sometimes not occur before Winter Break.[1] Aiming to make this event a yearly tradition as it is at other universities, the students decided on running during the first rain of every school year (since other events, like the first school day or first snow had already been taken by other universities).[2]