“A STAFF MEMBER REPORTED THAT A STATUE WAS MISSING. PUBLIC SAFETY RECOVERED THE STOLEN STATUE.”
That’s the full text of the wonderfully vague DPS report concerning the sudden departure of GeorgePepperdine from Joslyn Plaza. The statue was a generous gift to the school and a fixture of lower campus. Indeed students embraced the statue as an advertising medium nearly as thoroughly as the Rock. Its removal coincided with Waves Weekend and thus affected parents and alumni besides just students.
It needs to be said: theft is never something to be encouraged and we at the Graphic can’t completely condone abduction of the statue. Although certain boundaries may have been crossed we speculate that the spirit behind the removal was that of benevolent mischief. We think the spirit of the kind-hearted prankster can be an effective means of building community.
First it’s fairly clear the campus suffers from apathy. It’s true that volleyball games are well-attended TheRandumb Show premiere was packed on Friday night and Coffeehouse in the Sandbar always attracts a sizeable crowd. People show up excited for these events but these instances are isolated exceptional in their popularity. What’s far more common is for campus to clear out every weekend. Many students live off campus to begin with and those who are here drive elsewhere to have their fun. The result is a ghost town of a campus not a thriving community. The fact is people won’t stick around unless they have a reason.
Benevolent mischief entertains bystanders and respects property and authority. By entertaining others this mischief includes them as accessories to jollity. The result is a community of merry pranksters. To understand the spirit of benevolent mischief it’s helpful to review some examples.
Most recently the Freedom Wall brought people together on campus. While this was not a prank in any sense it did allow people to express their mischievous sides. Some of the comments on the wall were not political at all but downright funny. Watching someone write a good non-offensive joke on the wall enthused all around. Even those without pens in hand could share the laugh at “Cap’n Crunch cuts the roof of your mouth and its reply: I can attest.” The wall as a whole was not intended for a laugh but its more mischievous comments did attract a crowd.
And seniors might remember April Fool’s Day 2008 when a band of pranksters plastered the campus with signs advertsing that U2 would be coming for the spring concert. The Student Programming Board had to field some unnecessary calls and students’ hopes were needlessly raised but in the end it created a healthy buzz of campus activity.
Or perhaps we can take a cue from those nerds at MIT. The school is notorious for its pranks or in MIT lingo “hacks.” Upon the release of “Star Wars: Episode I students dressed the school’s Great Dome as R2-D2, canvassing the structure in red, white and blue fabric. When maintenance staff got to the top of the dome to dismantle the costume, they found detailed instructions telling them how. Imagine such a well-executed and kind-hearted prank at Pepperdine. DPS would scarcely care to investigate such a feat.
Pulling mean-spirited pranks, on the other hand, would only serve to drive people away from campus and turn the administration against students. We’ve witnessed some of this sentiment on campus already this semester. When the Freedom Wall was torn down, College Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and the Green Team united to re-erect it. There was a lightning fast response from the Pepperdine community saying that destruction of such valued common property was not acceptable. If whoever took the George Pepperdine statue intended harm, they would have dismembered or destroyed it. As the statue was recovered, this was not the case. We can only assume it was an attempt at humor, snatching up an icon at a busy time on campus.
In the end, the wrongdoers were caught, and it’s in the hands of the Student Disciplinary Committee what action will be taken against them. We hope that whatever resolution comes be treated as a teaching moment, in which we can establish some community standards for our mischief that respects the property of the school, while at the same time not discouraging a playful attitude on campus.
Benevolent mischief unites students in a shared spirit of playfulness. Kind pranks bring campuses together. Let’s see some more of them.