SAN JOSE, Calif. – Stanford University’s century-old liplockapalooza called Full Moon on the Quad has survived mono, cold sores, bad breath, regular flu and even fears that HIV could be spread by kissing.

But it couldn’t survive swine flu.

Stanford cancelled the tradition that dates back to the 19th century, when a senior would give a freshmen or dozens of freshmen a kiss in the sandstone quad during the first full moon of the school year.

But H1N1  a swinish strain of flu that sounds like a geometry proof, but in which H1+N1=0 kisses has brought the Full Moon crashing down.

And because it’s Stanford, this decision was only arrived at following an extensive epidemiological review. Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman issued the death knell Tuesday, denouncing frivolous quadrangular kissing on the California campus as “unconscionable” under the circumstances.

Ira Friedman, director of the school’s Vaden Health Center, said the university’s administrators weren’t any happier about shutting the event down than students were.

“We’re disappointed,” Friedman said. “It’s a longstanding, valued tradition that’s looked forward to by a lot of people. But it doesn’t make sense to have an event that involves a lot of kissing, the exact opposite of our isolation and social distancing strategies this year. H1N1 is not to be taken lightly.”

Friedman also called Full Moon, originally scheduled for Oct. 4, “a recipe for disaster.”Among the affected undergraduate population milling around the Main Quad on Thursday, opinion seemed decidedly mixed. “I was disappointed to hear that it had been cancelled,” said Ben Cohn, a freshman from San Diego.

“My cousins went to school here, and they said it was the highlight of your orientation to Stanford. They can ban it officially, but I think just as many people will be kissing in other situations.”

The kisses were chaste in the late 1800s when students lined up to give each other a nice peck. Over the decades, it evolved  or devolved  with some students showing up drunk or naked while groups handed out mints and condoms.

Cohn reluctantly acknowledged that the scope of the event could create a problem. “The mass kissing might be bad,” he said. “One person could possibly kiss 50 people in one night. When it multiplies like that, it gets dangerous.”

• Bruce Newman