halting on the brink...

The essence of a good prank is to know when to stop

The incident of the Hula skirt was mildly amusing, although not really in the rank of Great Pranks of All Time, or even Great Pranks I Have Personally Experienced.

It was also mildly irritating, because it so happened my class quiz was out on my desk over that weekend, along with other random sensitive information like proposals for review, personnel letters and budget information.
Not that I think the pranksters were after that, or looked at it - if I thought they had, based on forensics, my reaction would have been different.
My main source of irritation is the pranksters knocked over some of my kids drawings and they were on the floor - not deliberately, just a pile of papers slid down.

So, now we have a multi-office prank, cryptic, amusing in part
BUT, people, especially students of certain sorts, ought to realise that YOU DO NOT PRANK THE STAFF!

There is also a reason the staff offices are not on the academic master keys, that is because unauthorized access to those offices is grounds for expulsion or dismissal.
The staff offices are where serious information is kept - like grades, pay scales, and letters discussing what to do with students who push their luck.

The Staff are Off Limits.
And if you want to prank the faculty, at least try to make it interesting and amusing.

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At Caltech they installed motion detectors in the basement of the main administrative building to keep students out. Favorite pastimes included, sneaking up to the detector and painting the symbol of a certain dorm on the detector and buying some donuts, sneaking up to the detector, placing the donuts, and then setting off the alarm.

yeah, ugrad pranks at caltech were an art
there were also some nice smaller scale grad pranks, research group I was in had a "tradition" of pranking people doing their viva, those included some classic heartstoppers, including the one played on me

I like to think they were more stylish and humorous though

Don't worry. I can't get into the pranked offices.

By Prankster (not verified) on 31 Mar 2008 #permalink

Huh.
You really could not get into the pranked offices, eh?

That was actually neatly done, and makes some sense of what happened.

But, pranking the admin office, still not a good idea. As I gather you now know.