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The Rice Thresher
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by OLIVIA ALLISON THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF In the week leading up to Beer-Bike, students at several colleges have found themselves victims of jacks. Members of Brown College shut off toilets at Jones College and intentionally vomited outside Baker College last weekend. Students at Jones and Wiess Colleges created fake Thresher "extras," distributed at the colleges Wednesday. Brown jacks Jones Brown students removed spigots from every faucet in Jones' bathrooms and turned off the toilets late Saturday night, Brown College Beer-Bike Coordinator David Nunez, who was not involved in the jack, said. An anonymous Brown senior involved in the jack said he and the rest of the "Brown Regulators" also popped water balloons in the bathrooms, which he estimated to be about 1,500 to 2,000 balloons. The senior said Jones property was "not damaged in any way." He also said the spigots were returned Monday afternoon. Food and Housing fixed the toilets, which Brown students had shut off by twisting a lever. Many Jones students believed that Brown students had purposefully clogged the toilets. "I thought it was a low-class jack. Destroying people's water balloons is fine, but clogging toilets is just extra work for the housekeeping staff and is really childish," freshman Nathan Allen said. Jones senior Melissa Selik said she considered the jack destructive. "Later in the day we discovered the spigots on the faucets were missing. I didn't know we were going to get those back," Selik said. "I don't consider that a nondestructive jack. I think that violated the rules." Campus-wide Beer-Bike Coordinator Lindsay Germano said Beer-Bike rules do not address the governance of jacks. She said that the Code of Student Conduct are still in effect, even before Beer-Bike. Brown President Tim Werner said he has "remained ignorant [of the planning of jacks] on purpose" but that he thought the jack against Jones was a good idea. "It is the perfect jack because it's not permanently destructive in any way, but it's totally crippling because they can't make balloons," Werner said. "Besides, they took our Beer-Bike banner about two weeks to a month ago, and we still haven't gotten it back." Baker Shake jacked At least two students purposefully vomited outside Baker College Commons during Baker Shake's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor on Friday, Jones senior Greg Pfleger said. Pfleger said he and the other performers noticed someone vomiting outside the door between Baker and Will Rice College about 9 p.m., during the first half of the show. Jennifer Drummond, stage manager and Baker Associate, said the performers called the police and EMTs, and before they arrived, they discovered 15 to 20 more "puddles" containing small cards that read "BSWB" (an abbreviation for the Brown cheer "Brown, Shit We're Bad"). The puddles were scattered along the pathway from the doors to the entrance near the Baker vending machines. Drummond said the police were looking for a drunk person, so when they saw the students heading toward Brown, they did not apprehend them because the students were apparently sober. Baker Shake Assistant Director Andrew Lee said the students told police that they had eaten "bad Chinese food." However, Brown senior Alex Bain said that vomiting at Baker was a jack. "The 'Regulators' want to make it clear that on Friday night we jacked Baker. We puked all over the outside of the building and the walkways," Bain said. "Our jack was creative, effective and absolutely disgusting. It exhibits the best of Brown College and its members," he said. Pfleger said he and the other performers were very angry because it was an inconvenience to not only the performers but also potentially for the audience members. "What we were so pissed about was that our audience goes out [that exit] for intermission, and we have to take it for our entrances," Pfleger said. Pfleger also said the jack was not appropriate because it was directed at the play, not at a specific college. "Jacking something like that has nothing to do with the spirit of Beer-Bike or jacks, he said" Fake 'Thresher' extras distributed Wiess College sophomore Josh Ginsberg, one of two Wiess "ministers of Defense," said he and Wiess freshman Katie Higgins made a fake "extra" edition of The Rice Thresher on Tuesday night. The paper stated that Jones had been disqualified from Beer-Bike "following destruction of Wiess College Beer-Bike property," and that Jones students had "destroyed the Wiess College mascot, known as the War-Pig." He and Higgins distributed 800 copies on plain white paper to other colleges between 1 and 2 a.m. The fake article named incoming Thresher Editor in Chief Brian Stoler as its writer. The article attributed made-up quotes to real people. Ginsberg said he considered contacting the real people who were "quoted" in his article, but he did not think they would be angry. "I thought about maybe letting Brian Stoler, Lindsay Germano or Lindsay Botsford know, but we figured that it was right around jack time so a couple of quick phone calls could clear everything up, and everyone would have a laugh about it," Ginsberg said. Jones retaliated with a similar paper stating that Wiess had been "Excommunicated from Rice," which was distributed to college commons by 9 a.m. Wednesday. It also had the byline "by Brian Stoler." Andrew House, a Jones senior, said that although he was not involved in the planning or making of the extra, he was awake when it was being made. He said it was distributed by Jones students who were upset by how realistic the first "extra" looked. "If you look at [Wiess'] and look at ours, you'll see that it's more obvious that ours is a jack," House said. "Some people actually believed [Ginsberg's issue] was a real Thresher, and we didn't think that was cool." Ginsberg also said he thought it was obvious that the Wiess paper was not a real Thresher. "It was pretty recognizable as a jack," he said. However, some students did not know that it was a jack when they first saw the Wiess extra. "I didn't believe it because I had already seen the ones that Jones put out about Wiess, which were obviously fake," Sid Richardson College freshman Sara Logan said. "But, if I had just walked by and seen the one about the disqualification of Jones first, I would have definitely thought it was real. I talked to a lot of people who did think it was real at first glance." Ben Byer, a Will Rice College freshman and Thresher photo assistant, said he thought the first fake extra was authentic. Byer, who knows Stoler, thought that Stoler was involved. "At Will Rice I saw the 'Wiess gets excommunicated' [article] and I just thought it was some gag that the Thresher was doing. ... [After seeing the Wiess extra,] I thought that one was real and that somebody had done the other as a joke in retaliation," Byer said. In a post to the Jones newsgroup, Jones freshman David Price said he thought the printing of the fake extra was insensitive after the Thresher's extra edition about last week's death of Baker freshman Dan Henning, which was printed in the same letter-sized format. "I'm just a freshman, but I've already figured out that the point to jacking is not to show this sort of disrespect towards such a fresh, painful wound to the Rice community," Price said. Wiess laundry machines broken Washing machines and dryers in the Wiess laundry room were unplugged and disassembled Monday. Also, Beer-Bike decorations and the sign-up sheet for Wiess non-cabinet appointments were removed from the college. Wiess President Josh Katz said he was angry about the incident. Katz said Food and Housing had to repair the washing machines and dryers, but there was no permanent damage to the machines. "This is not a jack," Katz said. "No one took credit for it - they understood it was lame. If it is just theft or vandalism, ... it's a crime." - back - |
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