April Fools on campus
news brief
Alexander Richards
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: News
Just after midnight on April 1, a mass e-mail arrived in the inboxes of most students at the College. The e-mail, whose sender claimed to be an "Assistant to the President," jokingly announced that the Presidents' Council's "decision" to make Colby a dry campus as of the fall of 2008.
Some students, such as Tim Regele '08, immediately recognized the e-mail as "obviously fake." Regele and others pointed to the fact the supposedly "official" announcement had been sent to only a handful of students from a G-Mail account, and the prankster had made no effort to suppress the recipient list on the e-mail. Others had to dig deeper before uncovering the truth, going so far as to type the comical pseudonym "Clint Torres" into the College's online directory.
The e-mail went so far as to outline specifics of the fake dry-campus policy. Under the plan, students over 21 found to be in possession of alcohol would be fined $500 and two points would be added to their record. Underage students would suffer a similar fate, with the additional stipulation of the College "[delegating] the proceeding to Waterville police." Party hosts faced disciplinary probation and police involvement, and multiple offenses could lead to suspension or expulsion.
However, according to "Torres," the President's Office and the Student Government Association planned to "triple the budget for Student Programming Board" in an effort to provide would-be imbibers with substance-free alternatives.
Elsewhere in the e-mail, the prankster mentioned that other schools who had "made similar decisions" saw the "amount of alcohol related emergencies [fall] dramatically" with a concurrent "22% jump in student GPA." According to the author, "alcohol-related incidents...have increased ten-fold since 2001."
While these statistics were likely fabricated without any quantitative evidence, the person or persons behind this prank did touch on an important issue the campus is currently coping with. Alcohol related incidents are in fact at incredibly high levels, and committees of students, alumni, and overseers have been meeting throughout the year to brainstorm solutions to this ever-growing problem. Whether or not the prankster intended to spark discourse about this issue is unknown, but the inclusion of it in a prank does shed some light on just how widespread this issue has become.
Other April Fool's pranks included the theft of hallway light bulbs from the hallways in Leonard (which consequently posed a safety and security threat to the building), and other spurious e-mails sent out to various campus organizations, such as WHMB.
Some students, such as Tim Regele '08, immediately recognized the e-mail as "obviously fake." Regele and others pointed to the fact the supposedly "official" announcement had been sent to only a handful of students from a G-Mail account, and the prankster had made no effort to suppress the recipient list on the e-mail. Others had to dig deeper before uncovering the truth, going so far as to type the comical pseudonym "Clint Torres" into the College's online directory.
The e-mail went so far as to outline specifics of the fake dry-campus policy. Under the plan, students over 21 found to be in possession of alcohol would be fined $500 and two points would be added to their record. Underage students would suffer a similar fate, with the additional stipulation of the College "[delegating] the proceeding to Waterville police." Party hosts faced disciplinary probation and police involvement, and multiple offenses could lead to suspension or expulsion.
However, according to "Torres," the President's Office and the Student Government Association planned to "triple the budget for Student Programming Board" in an effort to provide would-be imbibers with substance-free alternatives.
Elsewhere in the e-mail, the prankster mentioned that other schools who had "made similar decisions" saw the "amount of alcohol related emergencies [fall] dramatically" with a concurrent "22% jump in student GPA." According to the author, "alcohol-related incidents...have increased ten-fold since 2001."
While these statistics were likely fabricated without any quantitative evidence, the person or persons behind this prank did touch on an important issue the campus is currently coping with. Alcohol related incidents are in fact at incredibly high levels, and committees of students, alumni, and overseers have been meeting throughout the year to brainstorm solutions to this ever-growing problem. Whether or not the prankster intended to spark discourse about this issue is unknown, but the inclusion of it in a prank does shed some light on just how widespread this issue has become.
Other April Fool's pranks included the theft of hallway light bulbs from the hallways in Leonard (which consequently posed a safety and security threat to the building), and other spurious e-mails sent out to various campus organizations, such as WHMB.
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