Christopher Geanakos
[email protected]
Ever thought about letting an alligator loose on campus? How about driving the librarians crazy by setting off alarms throughout the Learning Resource Center?
Although it’s probably unknown by many students, City College has a rich history of pranks and tomfoolery. The idea of letting loose a wild animal like an alligator might seem crazy to many. Surprisingly, this has happened along with many other shenanigans.
Lloyd Bruno, former City College English professor for 40 years, recounted his experiences dealing with student pranks in his oral history review, which was recorded in 1970 and is currently stored in the Special Collections Room.
“The students would park their cars out in the Quad and sit there and blow their horns all afternoon,” Bruno said. “The change I remember with the most pleasure was when they got that parking lot out of the Quad.”
Bruno also discussed the infamous alligator story, which he learned about during a European sabbatical.
“I read in Italian an item that some students at Sacramento City College, in Sacramento, Calif., had stolen an alligator from the zoo at City Park across the street, took the alligator to the campus and put it in the swimming pool.”
This drug takes 30-45 minutes in producing generic cialis buy results. Practice aerobic exercise for five days a week for a period of six to nine weeks. icks.org prices for viagra viagra super active As an effective progressive resistance device, this helps tone, tight and strengthen your vaginal muscles. Erectile Dysfunction condition itself is often related to generico levitra on line http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/2017FW-3.pdf an underlying issue may be sufficient to turn around your erectile brokenness. Marvin Cragun, former City College librarian from 1938 to 1969, also documented his experiences with campus pranks.
“The pranks in the library were, well, they were varied and amusing at times,” Cragun said. “[One time] some ingenious student thought that he would get together a dozen or so alarm clocks and place them at different places to ring at different hours.”
According to Cragun, “The ventriloquial effect of alarm clocks behind a pile of books is amazing.”
Even the City College press participated in pranks. In the March 28, 1927 issue of The Blotter, City College’s second news publication, the headline on the front page reads: “TERRIBLE TRIPLE KILLING HORRIFIES COLLEGE STUDENTS.”
The article appears genuine, however the details are riddled with oddity. Apparently, the news story was written to stir up commotion for a campus club event. According to records from the Special Collections Room, the event was a smashing success.
Although pranks once played a big part in many City College students’ academic lives, the prominence of such acts has waned since their early 20th century heyday .
City archives librarian Patricia Zuccaro believes the reason for this is the student body has matured.
“For one thing, in the ’30s the student age was different,” Zuccaro commented. “After World War II, the age of the student body became older.”