10/PSH NEWS SKTt.
Pianks abound in campus dormitories
Stacey Simmers
Capital Times Staff
Penn State Harrisburg might look like
it's all business-classes in a former Army
Air Force base headquarters, students
struggling to learn and earn at the same
time.
But some intrepid souls make sure they
have classic collegiate experiences, like
hanging out and playing practical jokes in
the dorm.
On any given night, there is someone
having a few beers, playing darts, or more
creative games like Strip Uno.
One pair of pranksters--who, for
reasons that will become obvious, declined
to be identified-lived on the third floor of
Church Hall. Throughout the fall semester
of 1991, they did their best to keep their
neighbors on their toes.
The pranks began simply. A towel or
two missing after an innocent man goes
into the shower; a phone disappears after
a student runs down to the pop machine,
leaving the door unlocked.
After a while, the pranks get a little
more creative—and some students say
more disgusting.
"My girlfriend stepped into a pile of
[feces] when she left my room one night
to go to the bathroom," said one resident,
who also chose to remain anonymous.
Later that month, a furnace on the third
floor was producing an incredible stench.
The resident assistant was notified of the
problem, and began his journey to find the
source of the problem.
After searching several rooms, he
discovered that one of the heaters had been
January 20-21
Date:
Lion's Den
opened. In it sat a pile of what seemed to
be human excrement
Could the pranksters be responsible for
these oh-so-similar gags? We 11...
"Yes, we pull a few stunts here and
there,".anacciised prankster, said." Webave
to. Almost every guy on this floor is an
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engineer. We get pretty tense. We have to
do something to keep these guys aware of
the world around them,"
He insists, however, that they know
their limit.
"We do try to liven things up around
here but I can honestly say that neither
one of us would [defecate] into a bag or
someone's furnace," the prahkster added.
Do not think that the pranks are
limited to the men's floors. The women
get just as wild—maybe not as disgusting
but definitely out of control.
The week before Thanksgiving
vacation, a shaving cream battle was
waged on the second floor of Church Hall.
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"I had to do something to her when she
threw a bowl of water in my face," said
Tracey Sypeck, a junior from Church
Hall. "I couldn't just stand around and
drip."
Sypeck and her neighbor were covered
with Barbasol after a fifteen-minute battle.
The war did not end with a shower,
though.
After Thanksgiving break, Sypeck
decided that she ought to attack her
neighbor again, even though the neighbor
was innocent this time.
Sypeck and neighbor Brenda Forwood
decided that powder would do the job.
They entered room 209 with a bottle of
baby powder and a hair dryer.
A few minutes later, the unsuspecting
neighbor returned to her room to find a
quarter inch of powder covering everything
she owned.
Sypeck and Forwood were hiding next
door, waiting.
"We heard her alright-so did everyone
else in the dorm," Sypeck said. "We
thought she'd think it was funny. I never
thought she'd be that mad at us."
They offered to help clean everything
but the victim refused.
"It was supposed to be a joke," the
victim said. "If they have to clean it, too,
how funny is it? I've decided to leave it
there, that way when they come to visit
me, they can sit in it and see how funny it
really is.”
There were no hard feelings after any of
these pranks. That's just how it goes.
Everybody will do something to someone
sometime before he or she leaves the
dorms.
Any way you look at it, a prank is a
prank is a prank. The more work the
students do, the better the pranks get. As
long as professors continue to pile on the
work, the residents will have to pull these
pranks. No harm is done and residents are
always on their toes, watching and
waiting...